A side street near Bathurst St. and St. Clair Ave. almost three weeks after a major snowstorm hit Toronto. For a number of weeks, it was impossible for two cars to pass on many side streets.Jordan Chittley/The Globe and Mail
Snow has been piled up on the sides of our street and for months there hasn’t been enough space for traffic in both directions. With the snow also forming walls at the front and back of the parked cars, there’s usually not a big enough gap for one car to pull into to let the oncoming car through. It’s a mess. It’s never clear which car should try to get out of the way and often one car has to reverse half-way down the street. Couldn’t the city just turn it into a temporary one-way for the winter? – Jordan, Toronto
If snow has narrowed your street to one lane, don’t expect the city to make it official.
“I’ve never heard of them making a street a one-way because of piled-up snow,” said Sean Shapiro, a road safety expert and former Toronto traffic cop. “That’s been a problem [in many neighbourhoods]. It’s happening on my street right now – you can only get one and a half car widths through.”
Much of Canada saw more snow than usual this winter – and Environment Canada said Toronto had its snowiest January on record.
Until temperatures finally started to rise last week, piles of plowed snow lingered on some Toronto streets for weeks.
We asked the city whether it could turn these streets into temporary one-ways until the snow is gone, but it said it would require approval from city council or your community council, “depending on the type of street.”
In the past, the city has turned streets into temporary one-ways during construction, Kelly O’Connor, a city spokeswoman, said in an email.
But that usually requires new signs and pavement markings and could confuse some drivers, O’Connor said.
It might also push traffic to other nearby streets and create problems there, she said.
After major snowstorms, the city’s goal is to ensure “at least one passable lane for emergency access” on residential streets, O’Connor said. If your street is down to one lane, you should “avoid parking on both sides,” she said.
Curb appeal?
Shapiro said the city could technically ticket cars that are parked more than 30 centimetres (about one foot) from the curb because of the snow.
“You can’t park three feet from the curb,” he said, adding that residents could complain about cars parked too far into the street. “If the curb is obstructed by a snowbank, you should know better than to park there.”
But parking enforcement officers generally don’t ticket as long as cars are “as close to the snowbank as possible and not impeding the flow of traffic,” Toronto police said in an email.
So if you’re on a street that’s not wide enough for both you and oncoming traffic, what should you do?
“If the parked cars are only on your side of the street and you have to go into oncoming traffic, then obviously it’s your responsibility to ensure you can proceed safely,” Shapiro said. “If both sides are blocked, then both of you have to figure it out.”
Although there’s no rule on who should go first, show some patience and courtesy and don’t “just push your way through,” he said.
Generally, the car with the easiest exit should get out of the way.
“[You can’t] stay there all day until the snow melts. You have to find the safest alternative,” he said. “You want to find a driveway or a safe way to turn around.”
While backing up is generally illegal on highways, there’s no law against backing up short distances on a side street, Shapiro said.
But backing up all the way to the intersection may not be safe, he said.
“You don’t want to enter an intersection in reverse,” Shapiro said. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”
If you have four-wheel drive, don’t be tempted to just drive onto the snowbank, he said.
“You don’t know what’s under the snow,” he said. “If there’s a fire hydrant there, you destroy your vehicle.”
Route of the problem?
When there’s a lot of snow, it’s a good idea to stay off side streets you don’t live on, even if GPS tells you to take a shortcut, Shapiro said.
“I love Waze, but it will take you down the unbeaten path,” he said. “Go to main roads that are properly plowed and clear. If you’ve been down a side street before and snow has been a problem, maybe change your route for next time.”
If you live in a neighbourhood with blocked streets, you “probably understand what you’re dealing with” and may be more patient than a driver just using the streets as a shortcut, he said.
“Occasionally things can escalate [to road rage or a collision] because someone is too entitled to get out of the way,” Shapiro said. “We should all be sharing the road. [And] when a road has that much snow, no one should be expecting to get somewhere fast.”
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