What happens when walkable communities — those places with complete streets, comprehensive sidewalk networks, and safe crossings — become covered in snow?
While it’s expected that municipalities will clear snow from roadways, it’s quite rare for them to clear snow from sidewalks. In Connecticut, there’s no state law which requires property owners to clear snow and ice from the sidewalks abutting their lots. There is, however, a state law which grants municipalities the ability to require property owners to keep sidewalks (and curb ramps) safe for pedestrians. Several Connecticut cities and towns — New Haven, Enfield, Stamford, Fairfield, West Hartford and Milford, to name a few — have enacted such ordinances.
But those ordinances aren’t always obeyed or enforced. Manchester, Connecticut has a sidewalk snow clearance law on the books, but many sidewalks remained covered in snow after last week’s major storm, causing schools to remain closed the following Wednesday as things were otherwise getting back to normal. It wasn’t the first time sidewalks in the town went uncleared after a storm: last winter, snow-covered sidewalks were blamed for the death of a man who was walking in the street.
More snow blanketed the Nutmeg State earlier this week, and with more predicted for the weekend, now is the time to make sure any sidewalks abutting your property remain passable (and please don’t throw the snow from your car onto a freshly-shoveled sidewalk). You won’t just avoid being fined — failure to shovel will cost you $25 per day in Wallingford, $100 per day in Bridgeport, and $250 in Norwalk — you’ll also be making it safer and easier for your neighbors to travel on foot.
If I were a property owner I would fight such a law and seek to remove ANY sidewalk on my property. If you want a sidewalk on my property, I’ll give you the easement provided you pay for it, the upkeep of it and assume the liability for it. Editorials like this are the reason that new developments and indeed much of the housing and retail areas do NOT have sidewalks. I’m thinking of places like Davidson Avenue in Somerset, New Jersey with no sidewalks, a 50 mile per hour speed limit in 1991 and various motels and corporate offices located on it. A sidewalk is a lawsuit waiting to happen. If a property owner has no responsibility for the road that caters to cars, why the ___ should the property owner have responsibility for the sidewalks?
Why is it that the government goes to great length and expense to clear snow to make it easy to drive, but clearing snow for pedestrians is left to the whims of individual property owners? Yet another example of socialism for the rich.
[…] Walking in a Winter Wonderland? Only if Sidewalk Snow Clearance Ordinances are Obeyed — and En… […]
Thanks for calling attention to this issue. In Rhode Island where we have a “complete streets” law passed a few years ago, there still is a major problem, especially at bus stops and even bus shelters, often blocked in by mounds of snow and useless.
However, thanks to constant pressure, there has been a little progress, the leadership of our statewide transit ystem has publicly called attention to the issue, as has the new Mayor of Providence, and key bus shelters and more sidewalks in that city are cleared. There is still a long way to go. For example sidewalks along overpasses and some local bridges where there is no abutter are a mess and nobody takes responsibility, even along state roads. And the “complete streets” mivement which got the stateide bill passed has largely ignored the issue.
Advice on how to improve the situation appreciated, write to bschiller@ric.edu
I only wish my area had this kind of ordinance!
It’s maddening to see bus stops and crosswalks leading to snow – and not just the snow that’s fallen, but the snow that’s piled up from the plows having cleared adjacent parking lots and using the sidewalk space as a dumping ground for snow.
This is absolutely something Tri-State needs to help people fight. What should we do when we see this kind of unsafe condition? How do we find out if there are fines which should apply?
Frankly, I’d rather see municipalities fine people who leave dangerous/unpassable sidewalks – an ACTUAL unsafe condition – than fine them for driving 31 mph.
I would support fining those, including road plow operators who shovel or move snow on sidewalks that are cleared by government. I oppose requiring people to clear abutting sidewalks unless they also are required to clear the abutting streets. If road clearance is a government responsibility so is sidewalk clearance. Just because you want me to clear the sidewalk in front of my property does not mean the government should force me to do it and accept the responsibility and liability when the government takes care of the road in front of my property. The sidewalks are for the public and should be the responsibility of the public. The lack of sidewalks in many areas is due to the headache they are to the property owner and bus stops can be an even bigger headache.
Clark, when you buy property, you knowingly acquire the responsibility to care for your property and keep your sidewalk clear of snow if you have a sidewalk.
It would not make sense either, to say that the government should clear your sidewalk. Talk about inefficient, not to mention expensive.
Road maintenance is not at all the same as shoveling sidewalk either. Individuals can’t be expected to maintain a road surface and its drainage. Individuals CAN be expected to shovel after a snowstorm or hire someone who will.
You want the sidewalk. You pay for it and accept the responsibility for it. Why do you think most new suburban retail, office, and residential developments have no sidewalks? I believe it is because of the liability and cost of maintaining the sidewalks. If a property owner doesn’t have the responsibility for the road, what idiotic logic says the property owner should be responsible for the sidewalks?
[…] Walking in a winter wonderland? Only if sidewalk snow clearance ordinances are obeyed – and en… […]