Enough crying about bad city streets

KAMLOOPS — Enough already!! We already know that the city streets aren’t in ideal condition. We already know that the sidewalks in some cases are atrocious. We know that intersections are full of water. We know that lanes aren’t wide enough in some cases for even two lanes of traffic. We know potholes are starting to show up. We know that for those with disabilities (and I’m one of them) it’s really hard maneuvering through the ruts, the piles of snow and the windrows. We know those windrows are so high that bus passengers sometimes have difficulty getting through them when they get off the bus. We know that some people have had to resort to walking in the travelled portion of Fortune Drive because the sidewalks were plowed in. But enough already!

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The City crews have done an admirable job getting roads clear in an abysmal winter. We’ve had more occasions than normal when snow has hit us hard, and then, just when it looked like things were getting better, down it came again. We do not have unlimited resources to be able to deal with these things. And if motorists would drive more carefully and with more common sense, and people would plan their trips better, we would certainly reduce the number of problems. Not eliminate them, but certainly reduce them. As a person who needs to walk with a cane, I can sympathize with people trying to keep their balance. As a person who drives down an arterial road with an anxious driver taking up more than one lane, I get it. But we should not be spending more than necessary for snow removal. Not unless we want to pay a lot more in taxes. Yes, the crews have opted, or so it seems, to let the warmer temperatures melt some of the snow. That hasn’t worked in many areas of town, and water has glazed over at night and become treacherous in the morning. But we’ve had relatively few accidents, and a large part of that is to the credit of snow crews who have worked hard to keep, particularly the arterials, open to traffic. I don’t like it when this time of year comes. It’s tough on everyone. But I’m really tired of hearing people complain about something there’s not an easy solution for. City crews aren’t perfect, but they have to make instant judgments about these things, and they are doing just fine. Let’s cut them some slack, have a little patience and soon it will be all over and we’ll have something else to blame the workers for. Seems to be easy to find blame than look at the good work that’s been done in a particularly difficult winter.