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Where are all of Calgary’s snow plows? An American magazine wants to know

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The Atlantic Cities website posted today an interesting examination of the always touchy subject of urban snow clearing.

The authors polled a number of North American cities about the number of plows each city owns, and compared it to the amount of snowfall. At the very least, this simple question led to two realizations that should comfort both Calgarians and City Hall: 1. Everything about snow clearing is fraught with complications (there were big differences in the ways cities classify snow plows, collect data and clear snow from the streets). 2. Every city with snow is as obsessed with snow clearing as Calgary is.

Now that we’re done with comfort, check out the results, which may do the opposite. Based on the story’s math, (which comes with plenty of caveats), Calgary doesn’t look so good:

snowdata copy 1 Where are all of Calgarys snow plows? An American magazine wants to know

Graphic from Atlantic Cities

The Atlantic piece picks up on one of the more interesting stories buried in this data: The number of plows in a city seems based on people’s expectations more than needs. The snowier cities aren’t necessarily the ones with the most plows because, it’s suggested, people in those cities are accustomed to big snowfalls. That could explain why Buffalo and Calgary have such a small number per square mile.

However, another suggestion was made today on Twitter.

Is urban sprawl the real culprit here? Could Calgary’s physical size account for its low number of plows per square mile? It’s difficult to say because there are so many factors at play, including the fact that Atlantic researchers say they couldn’t get a get an accurate comparison because of all the differences in the data between cities.

So it remains an open question. What do you think? Is Calgary’s poor showing related to our inherent winter toughness, our sprawl, or the fact that City Hall is simply not keeping up in the snowplow department?

Update: Here is some more feedback from Twitter about this issue.

Follow me on Twitter , Google Plus, or subscribe to my posts on Facebook.  Email me at tbabin@calgaryherald.com.



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