Montreal snow plan calls for improved parking, more cycling

Montreal wants drivers to respect parking signsthis winter so it won't have to tow 5,000 vehicles every time there's a snowstorm.

The warning came as part of a larger announcement on winter mobility, which includedplans to boost snow removal efficiency and to help increase the number of winter cyclists.

Anie Samson,theexecutive committee memberresponsible for snow removal operations,says having to tow vehicles slows the snow-removal process down.

Samson said she wants more Montrealers to download the city'sInfo-Neigeapp, which providesreal-time tracking ofsnow-clearing operations, orconsultthe Info-Neigewebsitefor geolocalized information on where you canpark and when snow removal work will be done.

She said 150,000Montrealershave already downloadedthe app.

Good news for cyclists

The two-pronged announcement also featured news for cyclists who will have access to another 82 kilometres of all-season bike paths. In total,429 kilometres of bike paths willbe cleared throughout the winter.

The city councillorresponsible for bike safety,Marc-Andr Gadoury,highlighted the addition of protected paths in the four-season network to further ensure the safety of cyclists.

Gadourysaid he hoped this additionwill encourage more Montrealers to bike year-round.

Of the roughly one million cyclists in Montreal, he said an estimated120,000 bikeregularly in the summer.

That number dips significantly in the winter.

"Retention rates are about 12 per cent,"Gadourysaid ofsummer cyclists who bike through thewinter.

"We're hoping with these measures to boost it to 20 per cent."

Centralized snow removal policy

This coming winter will be the second to see Montreal dictate when its boroughs need to remove snowfall.

The centralized policy was announced in2015 after 3,000 snow removal complaints led to anauditor'sreport.

Under the policy, all boroughs must respect certain snow removaltime framesor face fines.

Last yearsawdisparities in the time it took the different boroughs to clear snowthat the city hopes will be resolved this year.

For example, after the first major snowfall last winter, snow hadbeen cleared from all streets in the borough of Anjou by Jan. 4,but only 51per cent of streets inPierrefonds-Roxborowere free of snow by the same date.

Samson admitted there were some issues last year but saidthey were minor and were being worked on.

What are the time frames?

Borough sidewalks mustbe cleared when more than 2.5centimetres of snowfall andsprinkled with salt or gravel when there's more than 2.5 centimetres of snow.

The threshold to begin snow removal isbetween 10 and 15 centimetres, witha five-centimetreleeway based on the type of precipitation.

Each boroughhas 12 hours to beginsnow removal operations once the order is given by the city. Boroughsthen have 32 hours to complete the removal on main arteries.

Snow must be removed within 96 hours on secondary and local roads when a storm results in 20 centimetres of snow or less.

On Wednesday, the city budget for 2017revealed the city has set aside$5.8 million less than last year for snow removal. That's a 3.5 per cent drop from what was spent on snow removal in 2015-2016.

The city credits this savingto the centralized management of snow removal contracts.

• Snow removal cleanup to get more city oversight
• Montreal snow-clearing sees disparity between boroughs