[caption id="attachment_8347" align="alignnone" width="497"]
City salt truck at 9 a.m. heading east on Broadway Avenue[/caption]
It's snowing. Finally. The little flakes began drifting down on the corner of Broadway and Granville a little after 9 a.m. this morning -- two hours later it hasn't amounted to much, at least not where I am. I know the snow will be heavier in both the east and the south as the city rises in elevation but that doesn't help me down here near sea level.
[caption id="attachment_8349" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Henry's shopping cart at 10 a.m. Not enough snow yet to slow him down.[/caption]
The amount of snow that will quickly melt on the main roads will immediately begin sticking in the less-traveled back alleys. By the time the snow is heavy enough to build up by the curbs on high-traffic thoroughfares like Broadway, the side streets will be covered; the back alleys will be the hardest hit and the last places to be cleared.
It doesn't take much snow in the lanes to affect binning, particularly binning with shopping carts. That's pretty obvious -- those little wheels -- what's less obvious is the fact that the big heavy-duty city trucks that collect residential blue boxes once a week -- cans, tins, bottles, newspapers -- can't handle a decent snowfall either. The worse the snow gets, the more the tables turn in favour of binners collecting bottles and cans on foot; this actually includes binners with bikes. A bike, with it's pneumatic tires, is easy to walk in the snow and it makes an excellent "donkey" for carrying bottles. I remember two winters when it became cold and snowy enough to freeze all my bike's brake and gear-shifting cables; for days I couldn't do anything but walk the bike -- in one gear! I still had an easier time of it than shopping cart binners.
That's about 5 centimetres by the way, and it can paralyze the movement of goods and people in Vancouver.
I've seen large commercial tractor-trailer trucks having trouble getting traction in a light dusting of snow coming up the slope from the south end of the Cambie Bridge towards Broadway. I don't think many vehicles in Vancouver ever put on winter tires -- I know that transit buses use summer tires year-round, come what may -- a bus driver explained that to me last year -- I give them extra room at the best of times now.
Thanks to the normally mild climate I believe Vancouver's drivers have fewer coping skills when it comes to snow than almost anyone else in Canada. Every time it snows here enough to stick I can be assured of amazing more than one driver by effortlessly getting their car un-stuck using a flattened cardboard box. You'd think it was witchcraft or something.
Black ice is what I worry about. Last winter I left my parkade one morning. As soon as I stepped off the concrete onto asphalt I slid uncontrollably. A dumpster at the entrance to the parkade stopped me. I stood -- along with my bike and trailer -- pinned by gravity to that dumpster; sheer black ice coating all the pavement underfoot. I considered that I might have to wait for sunrise. Before then cars would arrive at the parking lot -- perhaps I could wave at them like a Walmart greeter? Luckily I was able to inch my way onto the concrete sidewalk and drag my bike and trailer up the half block to the next intersection.
According to this item in The Province newspaper last week, the City of Vancouver is sitting on a mountain of 1000 tons of rock salt; every grain shipped straight from the Mexican Baja -- 3000 kilometres away; where all of B.C.'s road salt seems to come from. The next closest supplier would be the salt mines of Windsor, Ontario, Canada -- 4000 kilometres away.
One thousand tons sounds like a lot but, according to the same item, last year, the city used 3,000 tons of salt. The rather severe snowstorm of 2008 required 15,000 tons. Click the images to enlarge.
[caption id="attachment_8352" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Outside City Hall yesterday. I'm told rock salt has been confused for crack cocaine.[/caption]
City salt truck at 9 a.m. heading east on Broadway Avenue[/caption]It's snowing. Finally. The little flakes began drifting down on the corner of Broadway and Granville a little after 9 a.m. this morning -- two hours later it hasn't amounted to much, at least not where I am. I know the snow will be heavier in both the east and the south as the city rises in elevation but that doesn't help me down here near sea level.
Bikes can handle snow -- shopping carts not so much
[caption id="attachment_8349" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Henry's shopping cart at 10 a.m. Not enough snow yet to slow him down.[/caption]The amount of snow that will quickly melt on the main roads will immediately begin sticking in the less-traveled back alleys. By the time the snow is heavy enough to build up by the curbs on high-traffic thoroughfares like Broadway, the side streets will be covered; the back alleys will be the hardest hit and the last places to be cleared.
It doesn't take much snow in the lanes to affect binning, particularly binning with shopping carts. That's pretty obvious -- those little wheels -- what's less obvious is the fact that the big heavy-duty city trucks that collect residential blue boxes once a week -- cans, tins, bottles, newspapers -- can't handle a decent snowfall either. The worse the snow gets, the more the tables turn in favour of binners collecting bottles and cans on foot; this actually includes binners with bikes. A bike, with it's pneumatic tires, is easy to walk in the snow and it makes an excellent "donkey" for carrying bottles. I remember two winters when it became cold and snowy enough to freeze all my bike's brake and gear-shifting cables; for days I couldn't do anything but walk the bike -- in one gear! I still had an easier time of it than shopping cart binners.
No terrorist attack required, two-inches of snow is enough
That's about 5 centimetres by the way, and it can paralyze the movement of goods and people in Vancouver.
I've seen large commercial tractor-trailer trucks having trouble getting traction in a light dusting of snow coming up the slope from the south end of the Cambie Bridge towards Broadway. I don't think many vehicles in Vancouver ever put on winter tires -- I know that transit buses use summer tires year-round, come what may -- a bus driver explained that to me last year -- I give them extra room at the best of times now.
Thanks to the normally mild climate I believe Vancouver's drivers have fewer coping skills when it comes to snow than almost anyone else in Canada. Every time it snows here enough to stick I can be assured of amazing more than one driver by effortlessly getting their car un-stuck using a flattened cardboard box. You'd think it was witchcraft or something.
Black ice is what I worry about. Last winter I left my parkade one morning. As soon as I stepped off the concrete onto asphalt I slid uncontrollably. A dumpster at the entrance to the parkade stopped me. I stood -- along with my bike and trailer -- pinned by gravity to that dumpster; sheer black ice coating all the pavement underfoot. I considered that I might have to wait for sunrise. Before then cars would arrive at the parking lot -- perhaps I could wave at them like a Walmart greeter? Luckily I was able to inch my way onto the concrete sidewalk and drag my bike and trailer up the half block to the next intersection.
A mountain of salt
According to this item in The Province newspaper last week, the City of Vancouver is sitting on a mountain of 1000 tons of rock salt; every grain shipped straight from the Mexican Baja -- 3000 kilometres away; where all of B.C.'s road salt seems to come from. The next closest supplier would be the salt mines of Windsor, Ontario, Canada -- 4000 kilometres away.
One thousand tons sounds like a lot but, according to the same item, last year, the city used 3,000 tons of salt. The rather severe snowstorm of 2008 required 15,000 tons. Click the images to enlarge.
[caption id="attachment_8352" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Outside City Hall yesterday. I'm told rock salt has been confused for crack cocaine.[/caption]
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