TTC stops are no place to pile snow

 You have to wonder why a plow operator would pile up snow at TTC stops, forcing riders to climb over or detour around them.

After another dump of wet, heavy snow this week, snowbanks along the curb were topped up by plows and won’t get any smaller until we have a long spell of warm weather, which could be weeks away.

With so much snow compared to last year, you’d think plow jockeys would know by now that the area where buses and streetcars stop for passengers must be completely cleared, as a matter of safety.

Apparently not.

An email with “a war on TTC riders, or simply negligence and apathy?” in the subject line arrived Thursday from Joe LaFortune, which was also sent to city officials, saying that plows are creating icy obstacles at bus stops.

“It is very obvious that city crews (and) contractors or the TTC do not want riders and are actively prohibiting them from accessing buses, or there is a conspiracy to discourage or injure potential riders,” said LaFortune.

When a bus stop on northbound Dovercourt Rd., at Geary Ave., he says it's “in the middle of the road because it cannot get close to the curb. Riders are supposed to risk their lives trying to walk on huge banks and slabs of ice?”

Much of the sidewalk, including the bus stop area, on the west side of Dovercourt, just south of Davenport Rd., has not been properly cleared because the plow can’t get around the utility poles, he said.

“Is this what we’re paying for? Lazy, negligent, endangering people?”

While his note is long on hyperbole (he later sent a second to city officials, apologizing for the first), he raised a point I’ve often wondered about: “I suggest that sidewalk crews dispense with plows …and maybe use snow blowers or shovels, like the rest of us.”

It sounds like a reasonable solution in places where the confines prevent plows from doing a good job, like some TTC stops. But don’t count on it.