As most of you know, on street parking is prohibited in the event of a 2” or greater snowfall. We ask for your cooperation in keeping vehicles off of the street in those events so that we can more efficiently clean the streets.
Please be advised that the procedure we follow when responding to a snow or icing event is to clear the main thoroughfares first such as Calumet Avenue, Sheffield Avenue, 213th St. and the like. Then we move into the subdivisions and begin clearing those secondary roads.
Our plow trucks begin by moving snow from the centerline of the street toward the curb line with the goal being to get as close to the curb line as possible so that vehicles can utilize the entire road width. Depending on the width of the road it can take up to 3 passes to clear the road from the centerline to the curb.
There are 3 primary reasons for clearing the road to the curb lines. First is to provide access for emergency vehicles. Once the plowing effort is completed and cars begin parking on the sides of the roads again there needs to be sufficient room to allow emergency vehicles to travel down the roads. The closer we get to the curb the more room there is for those larger vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances. The second reason is for mail delivery. If the postal delivery personnel cannot reach the mailboxes from their vehicles (on motor routes) they do not have to deliver the mail. The third reason is for drainage purposes. If we get a rapid thaw after a snow event we need to have the storm water curb inlets exposed so that they can take the water off of the road.
Cul-de-sacs- generally speaking we try to plow the snow away from the curb and toward the center of a cul-de-sac initially so that residents can get to their homes. We then follow that up by pushing the snow up against the most strategically available spot along the curb in the cul-de-sac. These streets can be problematic due to the limited amount of available curb area at which snow can be placed. In large snow events we may have to haul the snow out of cul-de-sac areas.
We receive complaints every year about our trucks plowing snow into cleared driveway entrances. We regret that this occurs but it is unavoidable. It would take much longer to clear the streets if we took the time to avoid the driveways. When clearing your driveway entrance (known as the apron) please take a moment to see if the street has been cleared to the curb line. If it has not, you can expect that a plow will be making another pass down your street. If you want to try to avoid having to clear your apron more than once during a given snow fall and you are able to wait for the street to be cleared to the curb line before clearing your apron that might help to avoid the duplication of effort.
We appreciate that most of our residents understand this situation and we hope with this explanation perhaps everyone will have a better understanding of the matter.
