Montreal snow-removal app to work in 18 of 19 boroughs this coming winter
Improved app, more cleared bike paths among new snow-removal measures announced Thursday
The City of Montreal announced Thursday it will improve its snow-removal operations by introducing new measures, such as updates to its Info-Neige mobile application and a commitment to clear 395 kilometres of city bike paths.
The measures fall under the city's new snow-removal policy, which Mayor Denis Coderre unveiled in August.
The new policy will see the City of Montreal take on a bigger role in removing snow starting next winter in order to improve coordination across the city's 19 boroughs.
A centralized snow removal policy will synchronize operations in each borough in order to ensure comparable service is delivered across the city.
The city will order boroughs to clear snow after 10 centimetres of accumulation.
Boroughs will have 12 hours to begin clearing snow and 36 hours to complete operations on main arteries.
Boroughs that don't follow the city's orders will face financial repercussions.
"If they don't want to do it when we call it, we're going to take it out of the budget for their borough," said Anie Samson, the executive committee member responsible for snow removal operations.
"A Montrealer is a Montrealer no matter where they live in the city, and they're entitled to the same services," Samson said.
Residents in 18 of the city's 19 boroughs (L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève is the exception) will be able to use Info-Neige mobile application, which is linked to GPS-tracked snow-clearing equipment.
The app made its debut last winter in five boroughs and allows residents to follow snow-removal operations in real time.
The app's map shows cleared roads in green, roads where clearing is in progress in purple, and roads that have yet to be cleared in red.
Upgraded functions include tools to help you figure out where you can and can't park in your neighbourhood and where to find your car if it's been towed.
"The big difference over last year is [that] last year we relied heavily on a lot of human-generated data. This year 50 per cent of the data will be generated automatically by the machines operating in the field," said executive committee vice-president Harout Chitilian.
A new city commitment to clear bike paths at the same time as the roads will see 395 kilometres of bike lanes kept free of snow this winter.
The city's Vélo 4 Saisons map will be updated to reflect the routes that will be cleared.