Here is our letter to the City of Niagara Falls when they requested public feedback regarding Winter Sidewalk Maintenance.

The tl;dr: We like sidewalks.

Hi Marianne and the City of Niagara Falls,

In January 2018, I moved from my childhood house in a rural area of Thorold to an apartment in the Main and Ferry area. I was 215 pounds, and generally unhealthy in my habits. I had tried gyms a few times but it just wasn’t for me. Having to get in my car, drive the 25 minute round trip to the gym, and slog away on machines that I had no interest in just seemed like a waste of time. Trying different diets came and went. I wanted to change but didn’t know how.

One thing after moving to the city that I began almost immediately was: I started walking everywhere. It wasn’t a decision made out of need, I still had a vehicle that I could drive anywhere I wanted. But I did it for exercise, to slow life down a bit, to go get groceries, to appreciate nature a bit more, to have the ability to say hi to my neighbours every time I passed them in the street, etc. I made a conscious decision to stop driving to places that I didn’t have to, and started walking instead. Traffic jams? Who needs 'em - I could walk everywhere now. I started to average 20,000 steps a day across my work and using the City of Niagara Falls’ public sidewalks.

I’ve kept up that habit as well as other positive changes and now sit at a healthy 150 pounds. A big factor in that was simply changing my environment from a rural area to an urban one. I now lived in one of the few places within Niagara Falls where you could realistically exist without a motor vehicle. It was just so easy and convenient for me to leave my residence and go for a walk in the city. And I now value that very highly.

The past two months (and to a lesser degree previous winters) have not been kind to pedestrians in Niagara Falls. It has been very difficult to get around and keep up my activity level with the current standards of snow and ice removal on the sidewalks.

After the historic snowfall in early January we received a sidewalk clearing along Ferry Street on the morning of Monday January 17th while the snow was still falling. Accumulation continued that day and re-created 1-3 foot high blockages along the whole route. City sidewalk clearance stopped completely on the Northern side of Ferry Street westbound once you reached the Emerald Retirement Home and continued to be completely blocked past the Shoppers Drug Mart after it converts to Lundy’s Lane. There was essentially no sidewalk for 9 days until the morning of Wednesday January 26th when we finally received an additional sidewalk plow pass.

I understand staffing shortages due to covid, the inconceivable amounts of snow, and all the other unfavourable conditions during that storm that prevented snow clearance. However, the Ferry Street roadway was completely clear by the next afternoon on the 18th (and continued to have plows scrape bare road for 2-3 days), while the sidewalk had to wait an additional 8 days before receiving any extra attention. I just don’t understand why this disparity exists. 

I walk for leisure, pleasure, and necessity. I had the luxury of being able to drive a vehicle during this time. Some of the hundreds if not thousands of people who use the sidewalk and rely on it to be clear to get to work, to get home, to get to the grocery store did not have that option. They trekked over the mounds of snow for 10 days or walked along the edge of the road while vehicles brushed by their shoulder at 50+ km/h. Why do we value the ability of the vehicle to get through the city safely so much more than the pedestrian?

As we approach spring, the sun and rising daytime temperatures have now started to melt the aforementioned snow. This creates a lot of running water along our road and sidewalk surfaces which, when temperatures drop as evening comes, turns to ice. While our roads have been prepped, coated, re-coated, re-coated again, with whatever processes and substances exist to stop ice formation - I don’t believe the same attention is ever paid to our sidewalks. Our sidewalks often turn into ice rinks from sundown until a few hours after sunrise. This happens every winter.

I went for a walk on the morning of Thursday February 10th around 8 am. I quickly realized that large patches of the entire sidewalks along Ferry Street were covered in a thin sheet of black ice. The sidewalks were clear from snow but essentially an ice-rink until later in the day when it had a chance to melt. My only options were to turn around and go home or walk next to oncoming traffic passing me by at 50 or 60 km/h. This happens every year. Our roads didn’t freeze because of the melt, why do our sidewalks? Are we not able to devote the same resources to the sidewalks that we do our roadways, or simply unwilling?

All of the effort and resources put into plowing the sidewalks becomes irrelevant when the same ice prevention methods that the road receives are not given to the sidewalks. While I do frequently see salt dropped by the mini-plows on our sidewalks, it’s simply not adequate enough to prevent the freeze cycle from my lived experiences putting many miles between my feet and the pavement over these last 5 winters. There is ice everywhere on our sidewalks in the winter time.

I’ve written all of this without getting to one of the other main points of this letter - a snow clearing by-law in the communities that do not have city-provided sidewalk clearance. My opinion on this is yes, yes, and yes. While walking along the main roadways is nice because of the wider areas to walk, vehicular traffic is loud and obnoxious, especially at the increased speeds of the main arteries. To have the option to take a stroll through quieter areas of the city without having to put pedestrian lives at heightened risk due to the necessity of needing to walk on the side of the road would be very highly valued by myself and others.

I fully support Option 2 in regards to the possibility of new services. However, I would also support a hybrid option between Option 2 and Option 4 in the form of more frequent plowing and ice prevention methods on already established Priority I and Priority II sidewalks, while having a Good Neighbour by-law for the Priority III areas. I believe this is the best of both worlds as the increased costs would not be as great as Option 2 alone, but the effectiveness of plowing and ice prevention on the more highly trafficked sidewalks would be more efficiently utilized.

I walk and exercise less every winter due to the conditions that exist on the sidewalks in our city. My Health app on my iPhone tells me this in terms of the steps I take. My scale tells me this in the form of the 5-10 extra pounds I’ve put on recently. And my body and mind tell me this when I’m just a little bit more unhappy, more often, because of the difficulties that impede my ability to just go out for a walk and get some exercise. The risks associated with using our sidewalks (or the road if they are deemed unpassible) just aren’t worth it to me as often when this season comes.

People once had access to the entire street within the urban area boundaries of cities. It was the motor vehicle's responsibility to not hit the pedestrian and maneuver around while people went on with their life. During the past century of human existence, we have shaped our publicly funded transit spaces around the motor vehicle. While some good has come from this, there have been quite a few negatives as well. One being: it’s so hard for people to walk anywhere, anymore.

I believe it’s time to change that. 

Best,

Nick Cupolo

Niagara Falls Resident

Owner/Operator of Evergreen Thrift Store