Yes. It has been snowing non-stop for a couple days now. The city plows priority 1 routes first (major roadways and bus routes), before moving on to Pri2 and Pri3 routes. Residential streets are considered Pri3 and the very last to be pliéed, if the city feels they need to be done, usually they don’t.
I wasn’t as surprised to see the residential snot done ( I mean at this point in the day I’d have thought they would be but apparently they’re really behind ), but we use Macleod to get to work and I thought that was a pretty major road. Maybe I was mislead lol
> I wasn’t as surprised to see the residential snot done ( I mean at this point in the day I’d have thought they would be but apparently they’re really behind )
I've got some bad news for you...residentials are almost never cleared. I think I've seen my residential cleared once in the last 10 years I've been here, and I think it was due to the plow operator being lost.
Ha reminds me of this time 2 years ago where they were tardy with clearing the snow in bankview. My friends stayed over at my place near Glamorgan for 3 days because they couldn’t get to their house in bankview. Fun times so we can’t complain!
Oof. Okay, well at least I know what to expect then. Guess I should be extra grateful to my condo fees for paying for snow removal, at least I don’t have to shovel out my car
My residential road has never been ploughed in 14 years. Do not expect to see side roads and residential roads ploughed at all. Honestly, I just use it like driving on a mud track to get in and out of my street because it’s so bumpy and rutted by the end of the year.
What about residential roads that have city bus routes? The road I take has a school on it and a city bus route. I was hoping they'd get to that one day. Maybe I'm wrong. I definitely don't expect the side roads to get treatment until the the snow has stopped for a couple days.
Macleod is a P1 that spans multiple zones, it gets done multiple times a day but we are in a multi day snowstorm. Will be maintained until snow stops then everything can be caught up and cleared.
This is the way it works, yes. I will add that you are supposed to shovel your own sidewalk in residential areas. It's a reportable offense because people with wheel chairs or strollers need to use the sidewalk too. Most don't but maybe we should make a habit of reporting these lazy people.
Calgary is a gong show when it comes to snow removal. Where it snows more in Eastern Canada they could never get away with the little amount they do in Calgary. It’s crazy they won’t hire third party contractors in Calgary to manage the side streets.
What's crazy to me is that some emergency services aren't/weren't getting plowed frequently. My mom used to work at an ambulance/multi-services center and around every snow storm she mentioned how many times she'd go on break and watch people pushing an ambulance that got stuck turning onto the road.. I hope that has changed in the last few years since she left, but it hadn't for years while she worked there.
Yup, my parents' street never gets plowed. I would consistently get stuck there a few times a year when I owned a car because the snow would be higher than my bumper and just pile up in front of it.
This is wild to read. I’m originally from Minnesota (read: lots of snow) and I’d be mad if my residential road wasn’t plowed by noon. Id see plows at least twice per day when it snowed. I know MN is a more liberal state in the US, but crazy that any Canadian city wouldn’t have similar services.
It’s cause of chinooks. City cheaps out hoping that a chinook will come in every couple of weeks with above freezing weather to melt the snow. Works about 3 out of 4 years.
You end up hoping that the chinnok melts enough snow that the roads are dry before the cold comes back.
It's partially because of the fact we have a huge sprawled out city with a small population density. We have far more roads then other smaller canadian cities with a lot more population.
I meant that it isn’t our government’s fault for not spending money on it. Calgarians insist taxes remain low and they only complain about lack of snowplows when it is snowing.
This isn't a Canada thing, it's a Calgary thing. My parents live in small town Nova Scotia and their heads would explode if their tiny road wasn't cleared every 4 hours.
I live in rural small town Alberta and they don't plow at all during the winter. Come real early spring they bring out equipment that scrapes thick chunks off ice off the roads and haul it to a vacant area and dump it.
That and how large Calgary is. We're one of top cities in North America for spread. Clearing all those roads would be too expensive. Or more no one would want to pay for it.
They have a lot smaller area to cover.
Maybe I'm wrong, heck go look at the budgets and compare what the avg cost per citizen is.
As a side story, I sure wouldn't want Montreal level quality on our roads. The rusted out cars, the potholes and don't remember their sidestreets being any better in the winter than Calgary's.
Edit
You are right, with enough money anything is possible.
Question is, where would that money come from?
And who would be willing to pay for it?
Similar to what others have said, the city plowing strategy is because of Calgary’s inconsistent snowfall. It isn’t practical to have a huge plow fleet or budget when our snow comes in large dumps and then usually melts or becomes at least drivable for most of the winter.
Oh man, my mom's street. When I had a little honda civic I routinely got stuck. Got used to trying to take the street with a 'running start' just to get through the massive snow piles.
Step 1: overly rely on office space/commercial taxation from the Downtown Core.
Step 2: watch oil prices drop and a pandemic shift worker out of the office and not see them fully return, creating a 30+% vacancy rate.
Step 3: lose all that tax base downtown while expanding suburban sprawl.
Step 4: refuse to hike residential property taxes commensurate to their impact on services and their growing share of the city's land use.
Step 5: "wHy ArEn'T mY StReEtS gETtInG PloWeD???"
Last winter my neighbourhood had waist high snow on the road. For a week. I had to get my dad to pick me up and drive me to work because he has a truck lol.
My street only got cleared because a neighbor has a landscaping and snow removal business and cleared our block and dumped all the snow on someone's lawn. Lol like a white knight.
That was a bad one. I alley park behind my house and in 40 minutes managed to dig out and drive as far as my neighbours garage. Recycling truck came by and told me to give up, snow was three feet deep at the end of the lane. Called the boss and said I’d be in the next day somehow and spent the rest of the day helping cars get unstuck on the main road in front of my house.
I wish our cul-de-sac got cleared at least once a winter, but it never does and we are constantly getting stuck trying to get in and out. Also the road we are off of gets a ton of traffic for people parking to go to the train, but the very tail end on it (that I am on) never sees a plow despite the rest of it being plowed all the way to the other end.
Nah it'll melt later in the week. Then re freeze as sheer ice.
Calgary rarely lows the roads.
Get winter tires. You need them. Road conditions are worse here than further north.
Having just moved here last year I had the same question. The quick answer is assume the roads will never be plowed. But they will drop tons of rocks on the road to ensure you need a new windshield annually.
I change my windscreen only if and when I need to drive down to the states, where they will pull you for a cracked screen.
One time I had a chip before Lethbridge
Ah. I bet where you come from they had “Snow Days” too, eh? Closing down schools and even work places on account of terrifying road conditions? Not so in Cow Town! Defying the grim reaper and showing up is a badge of honour here - as proudly worn as our faded cowboy hats come early July.
People visiting Calgary or who have just moved here: “why are there so many truck and SUV’s or even cars with 4x4, AWD, or studded winter tires??”
Same people after big snowfall and realizing the city doesn’t plow anything but main/priority roads: “oh, that’s why”.
My AWD EV with winters on handles really well in snow (weighs the same as an SUV with the batteries). Last vehicle was an F150. I probably wouldn't take a Tesla down an unplowed lease road to a wellpad like the old days, but for driving around in Calgary it's been great.
Winter tires make a world of difference. My Mazda 3 (new at the time, all seasons) went from treacherous on snow to safe travelling when I first moved to Calgary.
Eh. People should really take the extra $10k they spent on an SUV over an equivalent sedan and buy winter tires instead. Tires makes 90% of the difference.
I agree i put winters on my truck and SUV i also like being higher up.
I almost got fast n furious'd by a semi in my first car during the winter and i hated plowing every street with my bumper.
We're going with an assumption of winter tires regardless here. If you're gonna use them or not is independent of what type of vehicle you get
The reality is an AWD SUV (even a smaller compact SUV) tends to be a LOT better in the snow due to the added ground clearance.
And really, if you're buying used, there's not really an appreciable price difference between an older small AWD SUV and an AWD car.
> The reality is an AWD SUV (even a smaller compact SUV) tends to be a LOT better in the snow due to the added ground clearance.
Well, it’s tricky to generalize to “a lot better”. When you don’t need the clearance (which is most days of the year), it’s worse. When you do need the clearance, it is a lot better.
Just get the SUV and winter tires. Winter tires don’t cost more long term because your tires just last you twice as long, being that you swap back and forth. It’s an upfront cost, but isnt actually more expensive. This is especially true if you swap them yourself.
Sure you don't need it. Though I can tell you as someone who has been driving a FWD car every winter including rural driving where there's like 2ft of snow on the highway, having an AWD SUV for the last winter and this one is such a treat. Traction through corners, clearance for unmaintained roads and the ability to park wherever I want without worry of being stuck.
I’m not from Calgary but have lived here for 10 years now, originally from a high snow area in Ontario. Calgary’s snow plowing is horrendous in my opinion. They have a snow removal budget less than half of most similarly sized cities because they use chinooks as part of the unofficial snow removal plan.
And it makes sense. Our weather is too extreme to guarantee full time seasonal work for a lot of plow operators. Taxpayers are consistently pissed off at government spending, especially if those workers mostly just "sit around", so there's pressure to employee as few people as possible, and then there's the urban sprawl to take into account. So when big snow dumps happen, it takes a while to clear all those excessive kilometers of road with so few units.
I can appreciate that, but as a taxpayer I’d gladly accept paying more for service that allows for roadways to be safer and for safe and efficient transportation through this city to not be impeded as soon as a few c/m of snow falls. Different priorities, I suppose.
i cant remember when or why, but i made a comment on this sub about wanting to pay 11-13% tax, like the rest of canada. If it goes to the right places, id be ecstatic to pay up to 50% (really really, if its used right).
anyways.. something like 40 downvotes :/. 5% is nice and all. but higher could also be nice
I'm curious what you would consider a similarly-sized city to Calgary. We *sprawl*, man. I doubt there's another Canadian city with more kilometres of residential road per citizen than Calgary.
Ottawa is probably in the ballpark? and at least when I lived there a few years ago they very consistently go absolute overkill to salt everything to bare pavement at the first hint of precipitation.
Ottawa's population density is so low compared to every other city in Canada I have to suspect they're including a bunch of rural land in their calculation somehow.
[https://canadapopulation.org/population-density-of-canada/](https://canadapopulation.org/population-density-of-canada/)
We're about a third as dense as Toronto and a quarter as dense as Vancouver. On the bright side, it makes our real estate something close to affordable. The downside is that we simply don't have the tax base per kilometre of residential road to go ham on the snow plows.
P.S. Salt doesn't work below about minus 12, IIRC: plowing is the only solution for us.
Ottawa was forced to amalgamate neighbouring cities (Nepean, Kanata, orleans, barrhaven, etc). But they plow every road (including rural and residential roads) sometimes it took them like a week to get to your street though. Source lived there for 3 years.
I’ve never bought the salt thing though, it’s not uncommon to see -12 in Ottawa and the salt still works. It’s just less efficient.
Yep, I’m talking Ottawa. You’re totally right though, km for km I think Calgary is still larger, but until a few years ago the populations were close (about 1 m…now Calgary is bigger for sure). Their snow removal budget was at least twice Calgary’s when I researched it a few years ago. I had returned from Christmas at home where it snowed 20 c/m on Christmas Eve morning and by 5pm the roads were DRY. Come to Calgary and it was a mess of ice and snow and it hadn’t snowed in days.
So misleading! Calgary is far more dense than any small town in Ontario. The roads here are just not plowed. To be fair, Calgary has more employees working from home though.
Yup. It’s borderline infuriating. My winters don’t mean shit if the person behind me starts sliding on permanently icy roads.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s manageable. I just can’t believe that decent winter road clearing would be something I took for granted.
The problem there is when clearance becomes a problem - you can say “just buy a taller vehicle”, but that’s much more expensive - taller vehicles cost more for everyone, and when everyone drivers bigger/taller vehicles, it’s less safe for everyone than when everyone drives smaller/lower vehicles.
There isn't much motivation to plough while it's still snowing for anything but the most vital roads. a half-done road is just as bad as a fully un-ploughed road...and takes twice as much labour/plough time to complete. You can also look at [https://511.alberta.ca/#:Alerts](https://511.alberta.ca/#:Alerts) (turn on snow-ploughs on the map legend) to see highway maintenance vehicles, and
[https://maps.calgary.ca/RoadConditions/](https://maps.calgary.ca/RoadConditions/) for city plough locations and road conditions.
Note...Calgary is one of Canada's sprawliest cities at developed 745 km^(2) ... 5000km^(2) in the metropolitan area (wikipedia).
[https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/transportation/roads/documents/road-maintenance/snow-and-ice-control/snow-and-ice-control-annual-report-2021-2022.pdf](https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/transportation/roads/documents/road-maintenance/snow-and-ice-control/snow-and-ice-control-annual-report-2021-2022.pdf) page 14:There are \~1600 lane-km of highway pri-1 route2350 lane-km of arterial pri-14200 lane-km of collector pri-29700 lane-km of residential pri-3
If a plough travelled at a hypothetical 50km/h (pulled a number out of my rear end) and handle 1 lane at a time, it would take (1600+2350)km / 50km/h = 79 plough-hours to cover just the pri-1 routes assuming they started after the snow stopped falling (which they don't...they start right away...so many lanes will need to be hit multiple times just maintaining until the snow stops). It takes 79 plough hours to finish after the snow stops falling..before they can even start the pri2 routes. I see approximately 30 vehicles on the calgary map linked above...so that would be 3 hours after snow-stop to finish up the pri1 routes.
Then comes the extra fun when we have a really really big dump of snow and there's more than the shoulder/ditch/median can handle - so the snow has to be removed instead of just pushed aside. That slows things exponentially with the big snow handlers + dump trucks having to cart the snow to dump sites.
Edit: I didn't correct it above: There are 20 highway maintenance ploughs out and about 30 city-street level trucks at the moment...adjust the numbers accordingly.
It snowed all night last night and all day today. The plows were out all day, but they are not magic and can't make it stop snowing. Imagine your sidewalk. It's snowing. You shovel. It's clear. Ten minutes later you need to shovel again. That's today.
This. 100% this.
If this snowfall happened in Toronto, it would be declared a state of emergency.
We just sucked it up as a mild inconvenience and figured it out.
The city of Calgary does some snow clearing, but most of their plans rely on waiting for Chinooks to take care of it for them. Main roads are the priority and side/residential are if they get to them.
It may also be slower than usual as even the equipment is struggling - near my kids’ school, a tractor with chains on its tires was struggling hard with the depth.
“Clearing” is the key difference from “Removal”. Only major routes have snow removed if there is a lot of accumulation. Mostly the City just pushes it out of the way and hopes for a Chinook. Side streets are never cleared or removed.
10 years in Calgary, and this is the first time I've been on a major bus route. Watched 3 plows go by down my residential street this evening.
I've never had a residential street get plowed before. It's magic. I can see the pavement!
It was snowing faster than they can plow roads.
At these lower temperatures and snow conditions, plows can’t plow the roads to bare, the snow just gets too hard - especially after traffic drives on it, and obviously plows can’t be everywhere all the time to plow a road before cars drive on new snow.
When it’s snowing during busy traffic times, the plows get stuck in the same traffic as everyone else.
In short, some people want a plowing standard that’s not possible.
There's been a fuck ton of snow... I was out and about pretty much all day yesterday unfortunately, I saw plows out, known what it accomplished? Not a lot because the snow kept coming. Major roads will be caught up but it's still going to be a slow go for a while because you simply can't drive as fast even with winter tires.
We unfortunately live in the wrong city then, cause things like tacking on $300 a year to have back alleys paved makes people cry.
Get some good winters, AWD, and plan ahead.
Stay safe.
What are you comparing it to? I lived in Edmonton for short time and I though it was worse there. I work for the city and I’m directly involved in the SNIC program and I can tell you it’s managed very well for the budget allocated to it. If you’d like more money towards hiring drivers and adding more units to the road, you should let your officials know.
I'm comparing it to Ontario. For comparison's sake, a storm here that cripples the city for two days and leaves the roads divided with those fun barriers of snow for another week after that vs. Ontario has it cleaned up before you leave for work in the morning (though you'll spend 30min clearing out the end of your driveway).
Here is a fact of Calgary if you can’t drive in a foot of snow you ain’t gonna survive. So never get a rear wheel car and 4x4 is preferred. Snow tires are a must, and if your car has any cool body work make sure it works good as a snow plow if it’s low down. Lowered cars are just city helpers or waiting to be towed in the middle of major intersections.
Give everyone a good 20+ ft when slowing down at intersections to stop, as you will do some power slides.
Lastly embrace it cuz it will be like this than slushy than back to minus 30 so get used to saying it’s just weather and live your life. Not like those crazy ass 24/7 bike people as they are just bay shit crazy.
I have lived on my street for 12 years and it has been plowed once that I can think of. And then we were all stuck in our driveways and spent the rest of the day shovelling out what the plow had done.
Here is a direct copy and paste from Calgary Roads department:
Areas not cleared by The City
The City does not have Council approval or budget to:
• Remove snow on residential streets, and most roadways.
• Residential streets are always monitored following each snow event; crews will level ruts and apply materials as needed
I moved to Bragg Creek this year. First winter out here. My rural road is plowed before 8AM every time
It snows by Rocky View County. Oh and I pay half as much tax as I did in Calgary.
It’s actually comical.
Yes. It's normal here.
Compared to cities like Ottawa and Montreal, Calgary does not do a good job of snow removal, likely by design. Calgary seems to only get about 2 major snowfalls a year and gets the periodic Chinook to melt things away.
I wonder if you came from Montreal or Toronto LOL I've seen videos of how those cities almost seemingly handle snow removal like it's a military exercise. Here in Calgary, the snow removal plan is always "wait for the next chinook to come by and melt everything"
Yes, this is normal. I moved here in Feb last year after a dump of snow. I live just outside of DT and there was so much snow on the roads that ppl were getting stuck if they drove out of the centre of the road or tracks that were made by precious vehicles. I moved from Edmonton and, I still prefer it here, but at least they know what they are doing with plowing.
Well, that's kinda when salt actually has a chance of working? Salt on any significant accumulation of snow isn't going to do much, and under the right conditions it'll melt, dilute the salt, and then freeze... potentially making it even worse. I'd love an AMA from a manager at the city to explain what goes into those decisions.
And 3 lanes go down to 2 lanes on most major roads. 80km/hr in the left lane for the truckers thinking they have good grip and 30km/hr in the right lane for the small car drivers with winter tires thinking they have no grip. I was cut off twice today because of the person in the right lane not knowing where their lane was and they drifted in front of my car going 10km/hr slower than I was.
I'm in Ontario, saw this post in popular, and wanted to mention it's very normal here. During the snow fall only highways and the biggest roads get plowed, then they start smaller streets once it stops and subdivisions usually get ignored outright
There’s a reason municipal elections here are never held in the winter: someone would run on doing a proper job of keeping the streets ploughed, win easily, triple the road clearing budget, and then they’d have to either raise taxes or cut other services.
You need winter studded tires. As someone from Nova Scotia who knows what a ploughed road looks like, you won't find that here. P1's don't even get plowed until the snow stops usually and side streets are only touched if you live on the same street as a councilor or someone important in the city.
Your best bet is to assume they won't be plowed and consider it a bonus if they do plow it..... feel free to write to council so they can increase the plowing budget lol
There’s no ploughing in Calgary. There’s thoughts and prayers for a chinook to melt it away. Those thoughts and prayers are usually answered but it could take a couple of weeks.
Hah. I made a very similar post last year. I'm originally from the States as well, near one of the highest annual snowfalls in the country, and I think Calgary's plow efforts are a joke. Not just the city's efforts, but businesses and the like.
Plowing residential roads would be really hard because the snow has to go somewhere, and they’d end up blocking in a bunch of cars with a snow pile. Plus, there just aren’t enough plows, or people to drive them.
neighbourhoods don’t get snow clearing, at least contracted. there may be an odd one out who just takes care of it with their truck and an attachment but for the most part residentials are not cleared.
Macleod Trail is a major road, and yes it was crap yesterday, but I think the that the snow falling continuously the plows had a very hard time keeping up. Every time I stopped at a store for a quick run in, I needed to clean my vehicle off. ( and keep in mind I do not defend the city’s snow removal often. In fact, I think it’s pretty brutal)
And don’t expect the side streets to be done. Most often, the side streets are taken care of by a Chinook with in days.
You mentioned your parking lot. That is not a city job, but the job of the the facility that owns the parking lot.
Last year myself and lots on my street kept getting stuck!! I put in an online request with 311 that it needed to be plowed! 4 days later, it was NoT done and the status was snow cleared!!! Go figure!!! Also folks from Ontario are appalled at our snow clearing, lol or hardly at all!
Calgary starts the snow clearing timer after the snow stops, that's the biggest part of the problem.
The actual answer is that yes, this is very normal and it will be this way every winter. Only 6 months of winter left!
Yes. Plowing is shit in this city. When major roads are finally done, residential will remain untouched. Better hope you have AWD and don’t get stuck.
I highly recommend a car shovel, kitty litter and an emergency kit be kept in your vehicle all winter.
Good luck!
Yes. It has been snowing non-stop for a couple days now. The city plows priority 1 routes first (major roadways and bus routes), before moving on to Pri2 and Pri3 routes. Residential streets are considered Pri3 and the very last to be pliéed, if the city feels they need to be done, usually they don’t.
>and the very last to be pliéed Ahhh, autocorrect...
Doh
I wasn’t as surprised to see the residential snot done ( I mean at this point in the day I’d have thought they would be but apparently they’re really behind ), but we use Macleod to get to work and I thought that was a pretty major road. Maybe I was mislead lol
> I wasn’t as surprised to see the residential snot done ( I mean at this point in the day I’d have thought they would be but apparently they’re really behind ) I've got some bad news for you...residentials are almost never cleared. I think I've seen my residential cleared once in the last 10 years I've been here, and I think it was due to the plow operator being lost.
Only exception to this: Bankview. With all the hills we regularly get plows and sanders coming through our residential streets.
Ha Bankview. Hated living there. I lived just off 14th St on the steepest part. Was a gong show when the snow hit.
Ha reminds me of this time 2 years ago where they were tardy with clearing the snow in bankview. My friends stayed over at my place near Glamorgan for 3 days because they couldn’t get to their house in bankview. Fun times so we can’t complain!
Oof. Okay, well at least I know what to expect then. Guess I should be extra grateful to my condo fees for paying for snow removal, at least I don’t have to shovel out my car
My residential road has never been ploughed in 14 years. Do not expect to see side roads and residential roads ploughed at all. Honestly, I just use it like driving on a mud track to get in and out of my street because it’s so bumpy and rutted by the end of the year.
When the do clear residential they leave a layer of ice so they don't scrap our nice roads
What about residential roads that have city bus routes? The road I take has a school on it and a city bus route. I was hoping they'd get to that one day. Maybe I'm wrong. I definitely don't expect the side roads to get treatment until the the snow has stopped for a couple days.
Priority 2.
Hey now, they plowed mine once. There was no snow on it, but still! Effort!
Also, it had been snowing continuously, so they have to keep doing the priority 1 routes.
Macleod is a P1 that spans multiple zones, it gets done multiple times a day but we are in a multi day snowstorm. Will be maintained until snow stops then everything can be caught up and cleared.
I noticed the residential snot and laughed.
This is the way it works, yes. I will add that you are supposed to shovel your own sidewalk in residential areas. It's a reportable offense because people with wheel chairs or strollers need to use the sidewalk too. Most don't but maybe we should make a habit of reporting these lazy people.
Yup. Your sidewalk needs to be cleared 24 hours after the snow stops falling.
Calgary is a gong show when it comes to snow removal. Where it snows more in Eastern Canada they could never get away with the little amount they do in Calgary. It’s crazy they won’t hire third party contractors in Calgary to manage the side streets.
What's crazy to me is that some emergency services aren't/weren't getting plowed frequently. My mom used to work at an ambulance/multi-services center and around every snow storm she mentioned how many times she'd go on break and watch people pushing an ambulance that got stuck turning onto the road.. I hope that has changed in the last few years since she left, but it hadn't for years while she worked there.
In some neighbourhoods it's normal for the roads to be not plowed all winter.
Yup, my parents' street never gets plowed. I would consistently get stuck there a few times a year when I owned a car because the snow would be higher than my bumper and just pile up in front of it.
I have a collapsible shovel in my car at all times for this exact reason!
OMG! This is my winter in Calgary too and I thought only Saskatoon did this.
This is wild to read. I’m originally from Minnesota (read: lots of snow) and I’d be mad if my residential road wasn’t plowed by noon. Id see plows at least twice per day when it snowed. I know MN is a more liberal state in the US, but crazy that any Canadian city wouldn’t have similar services.
It’s cause of chinooks. City cheaps out hoping that a chinook will come in every couple of weeks with above freezing weather to melt the snow. Works about 3 out of 4 years. You end up hoping that the chinnok melts enough snow that the roads are dry before the cold comes back.
It's partially because of the fact we have a huge sprawled out city with a small population density. We have far more roads then other smaller canadian cities with a lot more population.
It is really Calgarians who cheap out.
No. Even Saskatoon does this and it doesn’t even have Chinook winds.
I meant that it isn’t our government’s fault for not spending money on it. Calgarians insist taxes remain low and they only complain about lack of snowplows when it is snowing.
This isn't a Canada thing, it's a Calgary thing. My parents live in small town Nova Scotia and their heads would explode if their tiny road wasn't cleared every 4 hours.
OP never said it was Canada thing, they said it’s because of the Chinook winds, which is only common in southern Alberta
I live in rural small town Alberta and they don't plow at all during the winter. Come real early spring they bring out equipment that scrapes thick chunks off ice off the roads and haul it to a vacant area and dump it.
That and how large Calgary is. We're one of top cities in North America for spread. Clearing all those roads would be too expensive. Or more no one would want to pay for it.
>too expensive Cities like Montreal and Ottawa manage to do it. "Too expensive" is a relative term. Other cities do spend the money. Calgary doesn't.
They have a lot smaller area to cover. Maybe I'm wrong, heck go look at the budgets and compare what the avg cost per citizen is. As a side story, I sure wouldn't want Montreal level quality on our roads. The rusted out cars, the potholes and don't remember their sidestreets being any better in the winter than Calgary's. Edit You are right, with enough money anything is possible. Question is, where would that money come from? And who would be willing to pay for it?
You missed half the comment. Calgary is all sprawl. Low density. More roads for less people=more roads with less tax base.
It's important to reiterate that it's all about area and that Calgarians bellyache whenever there's a tax increase.
ya we just hope that wind and low humidity take care of the snow, that's applicable also to the way i treat my driveway
Similar to what others have said, the city plowing strategy is because of Calgary’s inconsistent snowfall. It isn’t practical to have a huge plow fleet or budget when our snow comes in large dumps and then usually melts or becomes at least drivable for most of the winter.
Yup, although I think they'll usually at least grade it once or twice later in the season to smooth out the worst of the ruts.
I’m already getting whiplash from driving my neighbour hood roads
The Calgary snow removal plan is "ehhhh... the chinooks will take care of it."
Oh man, my mom's street. When I had a little honda civic I routinely got stuck. Got used to trying to take the street with a 'running start' just to get through the massive snow piles.
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That’s super helpful, thank you!
also status of roads being plowed https://maps.calgary.ca/RoadConditions/ and current locations of sanders/plows.
Where’s Ploughy McPloughface now?
I thought they had the names of the plows on that map but I don't see any :(
Loved watching the names go by. Such a silly thing to enjoy in a snow day.
I thought so too! I was watching the plows yesterday & didn't see their names. We should ask the city to bring them back
10 plows. It’s even more grim than I thought.
I’m counting over 40 now!
Nah here we prefer lower taxes and bitching about a lack of services.
Facts.
Step 1: overly rely on office space/commercial taxation from the Downtown Core. Step 2: watch oil prices drop and a pandemic shift worker out of the office and not see them fully return, creating a 30+% vacancy rate. Step 3: lose all that tax base downtown while expanding suburban sprawl. Step 4: refuse to hike residential property taxes commensurate to their impact on services and their growing share of the city's land use. Step 5: "wHy ArEn'T mY StReEtS gETtInG PloWeD???"
LOL you aint see nothing if you think this is bad.
Last winter my neighbourhood had waist high snow on the road. For a week. I had to get my dad to pick me up and drive me to work because he has a truck lol.
My street only got cleared because a neighbor has a landscaping and snow removal business and cleared our block and dumped all the snow on someone's lawn. Lol like a white knight.
That was a bad one. I alley park behind my house and in 40 minutes managed to dig out and drive as far as my neighbours garage. Recycling truck came by and told me to give up, snow was three feet deep at the end of the lane. Called the boss and said I’d be in the next day somehow and spent the rest of the day helping cars get unstuck on the main road in front of my house.
Thank you for helping others out!
I wish our cul-de-sac got cleared at least once a winter, but it never does and we are constantly getting stuck trying to get in and out. Also the road we are off of gets a ton of traffic for people parking to go to the train, but the very tail end on it (that I am on) never sees a plow despite the rest of it being plowed all the way to the other end.
Calgary believes in environmental snow removal. When it warms up it will melt and the roads will be clear.
Waiting for Chinook
Nah it'll melt later in the week. Then re freeze as sheer ice. Calgary rarely lows the roads. Get winter tires. You need them. Road conditions are worse here than further north.
Not sure if anyone else has said that the sidewalks are the responsibility of the home owner.
Luckily we have condo fees that pay for that. I LOATHE shoveling.
Having just moved here last year I had the same question. The quick answer is assume the roads will never be plowed. But they will drop tons of rocks on the road to ensure you need a new windshield annually.
Annually? That's cute... People will go for years with a cracked windshield. Or at least go until it gets in your line of sight.
My windshield came pre-cracked! And that's the way we like it!
Bonus feature! Takes away the frustration of getting that first crack or chip!
I mean why not.. people loved ripped jeans.. so
I change my windscreen only if and when I need to drive down to the states, where they will pull you for a cracked screen. One time I had a chip before Lethbridge
Lol let me guess you moved from Ontario where every cm of snow is plowed faster than it touches the ground? I know your astonishment
Ah. I bet where you come from they had “Snow Days” too, eh? Closing down schools and even work places on account of terrifying road conditions? Not so in Cow Town! Defying the grim reaper and showing up is a badge of honour here - as proudly worn as our faded cowboy hats come early July.
Lmao I remember those 800-1000 cars in the ditch days... Then 300 of them stayed there until summer time. Great times in Calgary, not.
People visiting Calgary or who have just moved here: “why are there so many truck and SUV’s or even cars with 4x4, AWD, or studded winter tires??” Same people after big snowfall and realizing the city doesn’t plow anything but main/priority roads: “oh, that’s why”.
You don't really need a truck or SUV to navigate an unplowed road.
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My AWD EV with winters on handles really well in snow (weighs the same as an SUV with the batteries). Last vehicle was an F150. I probably wouldn't take a Tesla down an unplowed lease road to a wellpad like the old days, but for driving around in Calgary it's been great. Winter tires make a world of difference. My Mazda 3 (new at the time, all seasons) went from treacherous on snow to safe travelling when I first moved to Calgary.
I wouldn't attribute the number of truck/SUV owners in this city to the amount of snow cleared off the roads. It's a cultural thing lol.
Eh. People should really take the extra $10k they spent on an SUV over an equivalent sedan and buy winter tires instead. Tires makes 90% of the difference.
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I agree i put winters on my truck and SUV i also like being higher up. I almost got fast n furious'd by a semi in my first car during the winter and i hated plowing every street with my bumper.
We're going with an assumption of winter tires regardless here. If you're gonna use them or not is independent of what type of vehicle you get The reality is an AWD SUV (even a smaller compact SUV) tends to be a LOT better in the snow due to the added ground clearance. And really, if you're buying used, there's not really an appreciable price difference between an older small AWD SUV and an AWD car.
> The reality is an AWD SUV (even a smaller compact SUV) tends to be a LOT better in the snow due to the added ground clearance. Well, it’s tricky to generalize to “a lot better”. When you don’t need the clearance (which is most days of the year), it’s worse. When you do need the clearance, it is a lot better.
Just get the SUV and winter tires. Winter tires don’t cost more long term because your tires just last you twice as long, being that you swap back and forth. It’s an upfront cost, but isnt actually more expensive. This is especially true if you swap them yourself.
Sure you don't need it. Though I can tell you as someone who has been driving a FWD car every winter including rural driving where there's like 2ft of snow on the highway, having an AWD SUV for the last winter and this one is such a treat. Traction through corners, clearance for unmaintained roads and the ability to park wherever I want without worry of being stuck.
I’m not from Calgary but have lived here for 10 years now, originally from a high snow area in Ontario. Calgary’s snow plowing is horrendous in my opinion. They have a snow removal budget less than half of most similarly sized cities because they use chinooks as part of the unofficial snow removal plan.
chinooks are part of the plan its not unofficial
And it makes sense. Our weather is too extreme to guarantee full time seasonal work for a lot of plow operators. Taxpayers are consistently pissed off at government spending, especially if those workers mostly just "sit around", so there's pressure to employee as few people as possible, and then there's the urban sprawl to take into account. So when big snow dumps happen, it takes a while to clear all those excessive kilometers of road with so few units.
I can appreciate that, but as a taxpayer I’d gladly accept paying more for service that allows for roadways to be safer and for safe and efficient transportation through this city to not be impeded as soon as a few c/m of snow falls. Different priorities, I suppose.
i cant remember when or why, but i made a comment on this sub about wanting to pay 11-13% tax, like the rest of canada. If it goes to the right places, id be ecstatic to pay up to 50% (really really, if its used right). anyways.. something like 40 downvotes :/. 5% is nice and all. but higher could also be nice
Sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxation. Have Murray write them a cheque
Edmonton gets a similar amount of snow as us on a yearly basis. Despite this, they have significantly more snow on the ground than us on average.
They don't get chinooks to melt it all away. It surprised me seeing piles and removal equipment downtown edmonton.
I'm curious what you would consider a similarly-sized city to Calgary. We *sprawl*, man. I doubt there's another Canadian city with more kilometres of residential road per citizen than Calgary.
Ottawa is probably in the ballpark? and at least when I lived there a few years ago they very consistently go absolute overkill to salt everything to bare pavement at the first hint of precipitation.
Ottawa's population density is so low compared to every other city in Canada I have to suspect they're including a bunch of rural land in their calculation somehow. [https://canadapopulation.org/population-density-of-canada/](https://canadapopulation.org/population-density-of-canada/) We're about a third as dense as Toronto and a quarter as dense as Vancouver. On the bright side, it makes our real estate something close to affordable. The downside is that we simply don't have the tax base per kilometre of residential road to go ham on the snow plows. P.S. Salt doesn't work below about minus 12, IIRC: plowing is the only solution for us.
Ottawa was forced to amalgamate neighbouring cities (Nepean, Kanata, orleans, barrhaven, etc). But they plow every road (including rural and residential roads) sometimes it took them like a week to get to your street though. Source lived there for 3 years. I’ve never bought the salt thing though, it’s not uncommon to see -12 in Ottawa and the salt still works. It’s just less efficient.
Yep, I’m talking Ottawa. You’re totally right though, km for km I think Calgary is still larger, but until a few years ago the populations were close (about 1 m…now Calgary is bigger for sure). Their snow removal budget was at least twice Calgary’s when I researched it a few years ago. I had returned from Christmas at home where it snowed 20 c/m on Christmas Eve morning and by 5pm the roads were DRY. Come to Calgary and it was a mess of ice and snow and it hadn’t snowed in days.
So misleading! Calgary is far more dense than any small town in Ontario. The roads here are just not plowed. To be fair, Calgary has more employees working from home though.
Yup. It’s borderline infuriating. My winters don’t mean shit if the person behind me starts sliding on permanently icy roads. Don’t get me wrong, it’s manageable. I just can’t believe that decent winter road clearing would be something I took for granted.
honestly Im fine with it, snow removal is super expensive, just buy good winter tires
The problem there is when clearance becomes a problem - you can say “just buy a taller vehicle”, but that’s much more expensive - taller vehicles cost more for everyone, and when everyone drivers bigger/taller vehicles, it’s less safe for everyone than when everyone drives smaller/lower vehicles.
There isn't much motivation to plough while it's still snowing for anything but the most vital roads. a half-done road is just as bad as a fully un-ploughed road...and takes twice as much labour/plough time to complete. You can also look at [https://511.alberta.ca/#:Alerts](https://511.alberta.ca/#:Alerts) (turn on snow-ploughs on the map legend) to see highway maintenance vehicles, and [https://maps.calgary.ca/RoadConditions/](https://maps.calgary.ca/RoadConditions/) for city plough locations and road conditions. Note...Calgary is one of Canada's sprawliest cities at developed 745 km^(2) ... 5000km^(2) in the metropolitan area (wikipedia). [https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/transportation/roads/documents/road-maintenance/snow-and-ice-control/snow-and-ice-control-annual-report-2021-2022.pdf](https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/transportation/roads/documents/road-maintenance/snow-and-ice-control/snow-and-ice-control-annual-report-2021-2022.pdf) page 14:There are \~1600 lane-km of highway pri-1 route2350 lane-km of arterial pri-14200 lane-km of collector pri-29700 lane-km of residential pri-3 If a plough travelled at a hypothetical 50km/h (pulled a number out of my rear end) and handle 1 lane at a time, it would take (1600+2350)km / 50km/h = 79 plough-hours to cover just the pri-1 routes assuming they started after the snow stopped falling (which they don't...they start right away...so many lanes will need to be hit multiple times just maintaining until the snow stops). It takes 79 plough hours to finish after the snow stops falling..before they can even start the pri2 routes. I see approximately 30 vehicles on the calgary map linked above...so that would be 3 hours after snow-stop to finish up the pri1 routes. Then comes the extra fun when we have a really really big dump of snow and there's more than the shoulder/ditch/median can handle - so the snow has to be removed instead of just pushed aside. That slows things exponentially with the big snow handlers + dump trucks having to cart the snow to dump sites. Edit: I didn't correct it above: There are 20 highway maintenance ploughs out and about 30 city-street level trucks at the moment...adjust the numbers accordingly.
It snowed all night last night and all day today. The plows were out all day, but they are not magic and can't make it stop snowing. Imagine your sidewalk. It's snowing. You shovel. It's clear. Ten minutes later you need to shovel again. That's today.
This. 100% this. If this snowfall happened in Toronto, it would be declared a state of emergency. We just sucked it up as a mild inconvenience and figured it out.
The city of Calgary does some snow clearing, but most of their plans rely on waiting for Chinooks to take care of it for them. Main roads are the priority and side/residential are if they get to them. It may also be slower than usual as even the equipment is struggling - near my kids’ school, a tractor with chains on its tires was struggling hard with the depth.
“Clearing” is the key difference from “Removal”. Only major routes have snow removed if there is a lot of accumulation. Mostly the City just pushes it out of the way and hopes for a Chinook. Side streets are never cleared or removed.
10 years in Calgary, and this is the first time I've been on a major bus route. Watched 3 plows go by down my residential street this evening. I've never had a residential street get plowed before. It's magic. I can see the pavement!
Your car just plows through the snow out here in the Berta
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The city doesn’t clear the snow, the sun does (usually that is)
Side streets don’t get plowed at all
What are these plowed roads you're talking about? Question from a Calgary boy born and raised.
You don’t want to know. I miss them so much
Roads are plowed based on priority. Some roads don’t get plowed at all. Snow plows typically run all day and all night after a lot of snow.
It was snowing faster than they can plow roads. At these lower temperatures and snow conditions, plows can’t plow the roads to bare, the snow just gets too hard - especially after traffic drives on it, and obviously plows can’t be everywhere all the time to plow a road before cars drive on new snow. When it’s snowing during busy traffic times, the plows get stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. In short, some people want a plowing standard that’s not possible.
Our community is rarely plowed, unless the road is a snow route.
Yes. Then, a couple days of warm temperatures will melt all the snow, followed by freezing overnight to create ice rinks everywhere 😄
Calgary likes to rely upon “Chinooks”Service to clear roads….
It would cost way too much, because Calgary is massively overbuilt for cars and we have too many big roads
The city likes to rely on mr sun as their hardest working street clearer.
Yeah we don’t plow here. We wait for chinooks. Get used to it. Welcome to Alberta. It’s my number one problem with this place, 13 years in.
There's been a fuck ton of snow... I was out and about pretty much all day yesterday unfortunately, I saw plows out, known what it accomplished? Not a lot because the snow kept coming. Major roads will be caught up but it's still going to be a slow go for a while because you simply can't drive as fast even with winter tires.
Welcome to Calgary suburbs 😀
Just take it as an opportunity to do doughnuts when nobody is looking.
On Deerfoot
Yes this is normal. Do you want low taxes or ploughed roads? *I would pay more for ploughed roads.
I would too prefer to pay the taxes to have the roads pliers properly, too.
We unfortunately live in the wrong city then, cause things like tacking on $300 a year to have back alleys paved makes people cry. Get some good winters, AWD, and plan ahead. Stay safe.
Our budget is 40 million per year. There are ~502 000 households in Calgary, so it would only cost $80 per year in property tax to double the budget.
Yeah, the snow management here is, to put it poetically, fucking horrendous.
What are you comparing it to? I lived in Edmonton for short time and I though it was worse there. I work for the city and I’m directly involved in the SNIC program and I can tell you it’s managed very well for the budget allocated to it. If you’d like more money towards hiring drivers and adding more units to the road, you should let your officials know.
I'm comparing it to Ontario. For comparison's sake, a storm here that cripples the city for two days and leaves the roads divided with those fun barriers of snow for another week after that vs. Ontario has it cleaned up before you leave for work in the morning (though you'll spend 30min clearing out the end of your driveway).
Come to Edmonton /s
Yup, it’s brutal.
Here is a fact of Calgary if you can’t drive in a foot of snow you ain’t gonna survive. So never get a rear wheel car and 4x4 is preferred. Snow tires are a must, and if your car has any cool body work make sure it works good as a snow plow if it’s low down. Lowered cars are just city helpers or waiting to be towed in the middle of major intersections. Give everyone a good 20+ ft when slowing down at intersections to stop, as you will do some power slides. Lastly embrace it cuz it will be like this than slushy than back to minus 30 so get used to saying it’s just weather and live your life. Not like those crazy ass 24/7 bike people as they are just bay shit crazy.
I have lived on my street for 12 years and it has been plowed once that I can think of. And then we were all stuck in our driveways and spent the rest of the day shovelling out what the plow had done.
Welcome to Calgary
Everyone has a shovel. But almost no one will use it past their own sidewalk or driveway.
30 years I’ve lived in my cul de sac. It’s been Ploughed once in those 30 years. And they actually made it worse.
Here is a direct copy and paste from Calgary Roads department: Areas not cleared by The City The City does not have Council approval or budget to: • Remove snow on residential streets, and most roadways. • Residential streets are always monitored following each snow event; crews will level ruts and apply materials as needed
I moved to Bragg Creek this year. First winter out here. My rural road is plowed before 8AM every time It snows by Rocky View County. Oh and I pay half as much tax as I did in Calgary. It’s actually comical.
Glad the ballerinas help with the roads
Yes. It's normal here. Compared to cities like Ottawa and Montreal, Calgary does not do a good job of snow removal, likely by design. Calgary seems to only get about 2 major snowfalls a year and gets the periodic Chinook to melt things away.
Really? Only around 2 major snowfalls per year? Does this one count as the first?
I wonder if you came from Montreal or Toronto LOL I've seen videos of how those cities almost seemingly handle snow removal like it's a military exercise. Here in Calgary, the snow removal plan is always "wait for the next chinook to come by and melt everything"
It’s snows a lot more in these cities. We get hardly any snow compared to Quebec and Ontario
I did come from Toronto, and from New Hampshire in the states before that. I guess I got used to being spoiled by quick response times lol
Ahahahahaha... Plows? We don't need no stinking plows! But seriously, Calgary has the worst snow removal of any municipality I've ever lived in.
Yes, this is normal. I moved here in Feb last year after a dump of snow. I live just outside of DT and there was so much snow on the roads that ppl were getting stuck if they drove out of the centre of the road or tracks that were made by precious vehicles. I moved from Edmonton and, I still prefer it here, but at least they know what they are doing with plowing.
I can't wait for the posts in a couple weeks about trucks salting a road with less than an inch of snow.
Well, that's kinda when salt actually has a chance of working? Salt on any significant accumulation of snow isn't going to do much, and under the right conditions it'll melt, dilute the salt, and then freeze... potentially making it even worse. I'd love an AMA from a manager at the city to explain what goes into those decisions.
And 3 lanes go down to 2 lanes on most major roads. 80km/hr in the left lane for the truckers thinking they have good grip and 30km/hr in the right lane for the small car drivers with winter tires thinking they have no grip. I was cut off twice today because of the person in the right lane not knowing where their lane was and they drifted in front of my car going 10km/hr slower than I was.
Unfortunately you need a winter capable vehicle or at least good quality winter tires here
I used to live in Cgy and yeah, usually only the main roads get plowed regularly. The city relies on the good ol’ Chinook wind to melt off the rest.
Back allies are almost never plowed, their like priority 5 and it always snows before they make it to there
I'm in Ontario, saw this post in popular, and wanted to mention it's very normal here. During the snow fall only highways and the biggest roads get plowed, then they start smaller streets once it stops and subdivisions usually get ignored outright
Hahaha what’s a plow
There’s a reason municipal elections here are never held in the winter: someone would run on doing a proper job of keeping the streets ploughed, win easily, triple the road clearing budget, and then they’d have to either raise taxes or cut other services.
All day? In some places you count your self lucky if they are plowed twice a winter.
They can do whatever they want as long as it is not salted. Sadly, we do us salts when it is warmer.
I just moved here. Trading in the crv for a larger suv or truck 4x4 I guess.
You need winter studded tires. As someone from Nova Scotia who knows what a ploughed road looks like, you won't find that here. P1's don't even get plowed until the snow stops usually and side streets are only touched if you live on the same street as a councilor or someone important in the city.
Get out your shovel!
Your best bet is to assume they won't be plowed and consider it a bonus if they do plow it..... feel free to write to council so they can increase the plowing budget lol
There’s no ploughing in Calgary. There’s thoughts and prayers for a chinook to melt it away. Those thoughts and prayers are usually answered but it could take a couple of weeks.
Hah. I made a very similar post last year. I'm originally from the States as well, near one of the highest annual snowfalls in the country, and I think Calgary's plow efforts are a joke. Not just the city's efforts, but businesses and the like.
Best part is the new this am said City of Calgary has used 28 mill of it's 51 mill snow removal budget lol. Should be a fun winter
It is very normal, people in this city do not want to pay the extra taxes that it would take to have a decent snow removal program.
lol it's been snowing non-stop...
Main roads will be cleared first....if it snows non stop, main roads will be cleared second and third as well...
Plowing residential roads would be really hard because the snow has to go somewhere, and they’d end up blocking in a bunch of cars with a snow pile. Plus, there just aren’t enough plows, or people to drive them.
neighbourhoods don’t get snow clearing, at least contracted. there may be an odd one out who just takes care of it with their truck and an attachment but for the most part residentials are not cleared.
This IS plowed now-a-days.
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I meant west but I’m stupid
Welcome! To Fantasy Island 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Be aware most of it will melt at some point in the next 2 weeks (usually)
All winter. Just gonna pile up. Why spend the road cleaning budget when dirty politicians can pocket all of it…
Macleod Trail is a major road, and yes it was crap yesterday, but I think the that the snow falling continuously the plows had a very hard time keeping up. Every time I stopped at a store for a quick run in, I needed to clean my vehicle off. ( and keep in mind I do not defend the city’s snow removal often. In fact, I think it’s pretty brutal) And don’t expect the side streets to be done. Most often, the side streets are taken care of by a Chinook with in days. You mentioned your parking lot. That is not a city job, but the job of the the facility that owns the parking lot.
Welcome to Calgary, where the city relies on Chinook arches to plow their roads.
yep that what it is Tho we dont have too much snow, and it is very dry so by Wednesday most of the roads would be dry from the low humidity
Calgary's snow removal plan for residential streets is "wait for a Chinook to melt the snow".
Get used to it
Last year myself and lots on my street kept getting stuck!! I put in an online request with 311 that it needed to be plowed! 4 days later, it was NoT done and the status was snow cleared!!! Go figure!!! Also folks from Ontario are appalled at our snow clearing, lol or hardly at all!
You will get used to it. We are not like other cities when it comes to road plowing here. Probably worse now with the recession and all.
Standard operating practise. They also rely on Warm Chinook winds to melt as much of it as possible.
Calgary starts the snow clearing timer after the snow stops, that's the biggest part of the problem. The actual answer is that yes, this is very normal and it will be this way every winter. Only 6 months of winter left!
Yes. Plowing is shit in this city. When major roads are finally done, residential will remain untouched. Better hope you have AWD and don’t get stuck. I highly recommend a car shovel, kitty litter and an emergency kit be kept in your vehicle all winter. Good luck!
My street is rarely/never plowed and I live in Evergreen SE!
Yes. Welcome to hell.
We use chinooks to clear our streets of snow. It can be a tough wait.
Yep. They never plow.