A local taxi company says it is facing thousands of dollars in repair bills for company vehicles damaged because of the city’s snow clearing methods.
Ray Lustig, president of Bee-Line Taxi, said that “several” of his taxi cabs were damaged trying to access residential roads that he contends were snowed in by city plows.
“These ice and snow barricades are constructed by the snow plows at every heavy snow and they are all over town, until traffic wears big enough holes in them to drive through, and quite often the first of that traffic consists of our taxis, coming to people who don’t want to risk their own vehicles on those dangerous roads,” Lustig said. “At Bee-Line Taxi, we take seriously the needs of our customers and we do all we can to reach them and take them where they need to go, but at every significant snow fall we are forced to endure thousands of dollars in damage to our vehicles because of the city’s totally pathetic response to heavy snow, particularly with regards to intersections.”
Lustig said his company has received quotes in excess of $10,000 for damage repair. One car in particular will cost roughly $1,941 to fix.
“The damage was cumulative after two or three days of having to be used as a battering ram,” Lustig said. “Roughly, the damage included in the quote included replacement of all front end under shielding and both fender liners, the air conditioner condenser and the front bumper and grill.
“If the city is going to authorize only the clearing of the main streets, and in the process leave every feeder road unplowed, with the intersections safely negotiable only by four-by-four, we would be better off if they didn’t plow at all,” Lustig added. “We can operate in snow but expecting us to ram through those barricaded intersections is irresponsible and unreasonable.”
Drew Hadfield, the city’s manager of transportation, said that under the city’s snow policy, primary routes – which include collector and arterial roadways such as Dogwood and Alder streets – receive first priority after a significant snowfall, followed by secondary routes (generally transit and school bus routes) and then residential areas.
He said when plows hit the streets, the snow has to be shovelled off to the side of the road.
“The city clears the snow from the driving lanes and has to leave the snow somewhere. This usually is placed on the edge of the roadway and sometimes onto sidewalks/boulevards,” Hadfield said. “Snow piles are a reality of heavy snowfalls and are also sometimes the results of the property owners shovelling snow onto the roadways.”
But, Hadfield said, the city does not barricade side streets as Lustig contends.
“The city does not block intersections,” Hadfield said. “While plowing, there is some accumulation in these areas that gets cleaned up later, but I believe the issues may be the type of vehicles that they use for taxis that generally are not made to be driven in snow (with) low, ground clearance. While they work well most times of the year, a few days of snow on the ground is always going to be an issue for any car or vans with lower ground clearance.”
Lustig agrees that “today’s modern vehicles are not constructed in such a manner as to allow them to be used as snow plows” which is why he feels that if the city is “not going to do it right, we would be better off it they did not plow at all.”
Hadfield, though, said that if vehicles are properly equipped for the snow, the city’s plowing methods should not pose a problem.
“The roads are passable by all vehicles that are prepared to drive in the snow (ie. proper winter tires),” Hadfield said, adding that he wasn’t aware of any taxis having problems getting around in the snow. “The city, as far as I know, has not heard any concerns from the taxi companies.”
Hadfield added that beyond a couple of concerns from BC Ambulance, which were addressed by the city early on during the first snowfall in December, a check with emergency services before Christmas did not yield any issues there either.
But Lustig said there is a problem and it needs to be addressed.
“I worry about the next big storms and will probably have to instruct dispatchers to tell our customers to make their way to a plowed street or we will be unable to pick them up,” Lustig said. “This city’s response to weather-related crisis is a disgrace.”
