Memo #16: Embracing Winter like Never Before
Tips for designing and maintaining safe and accessible winter streetscapes
By: Fiona McGill, Candidate, MSc in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Alberta
Rocky Mountain Icehouse’s winter patio in Edmonton. Photo Credit: Tracy Hyatt
A pandemic winter could mean embracing the outdoors like never before, but for this to work a concerted effort is needed to ensure public spaces are safe and accessible for everyone. Sidewalks that are free of snow and ice increase walkability and encourage business activity. Take for example Holland, Michigan, where in the 1980s business owners, the City and a real estate investor came together to plan a snowmelt system for sidewalks in the downtown core. The goal was to attract customers to the downtown at a time when small businesses were losing to shopping malls. Today, the central business district thanks the snowmelt system for allowing their downtown to thrive and remain competitive, even on the coldest of days.
Cold Weather Behaviour
Latitude 53’s annual Parka Patio Party in 2014. Photo Credit: Photo by Mack Male / CC BY-SA 2.0
It’s important to know what attracts and keeps customers on main streets in the winter. A study found that cold weather itself has little impact on the frequency of outdoor excursions, but that the existence of snow and/or ice on the ground ultimately keeps adults at home. In contrast, outdoor sitting behaviours (i.e. group size and time spent) are more influenced by sunlight and wind speed. People like to sit outdoors until it drops below 20°C, at which point there is a gradual decrease in the number of seated outdoor patrons between 20°C and 8°C. Granted, these findings may not hold for members of the Polar Patio Club.
Snow and Ice Control Strategies
With snow comes new reasons to stay indoors. Some barriers, like experiencing below freezing temperatures, can be overcome by bundling up, installing outdoor heaters, or integrating climate-sensitive design elements to control microclimate factors like sun, wind and precipitation. Others, like the accumulation of snow, ice and slush on walkways, present legitimate safety and accessibility concerns. Winter design and ongoing maintenance can ensure spaces are protected from snow accumulation and designed to allow for easy snow removal and snow storage.
Climate-Sensitive Design and Winter Maintenance
What makes for a comfortable and attractive streetscape in the summer differs during the winter. In the summer, pedestrian areas strive to provide access to shade and cool breeze. Winter demands the opposite: wind protection, sun exposure and easy access to warm refuge. Winter has its challenges, but it also presents unique opportunities. Snow and ice can be used to create temporary interventions and inspire pedestrians to interact with urban environments. Edmonton’s Winter Design Guidelines attempt to do just that, “celebrat[ing] and mak[ing] the best of winter... an asset offering great social and economic value.” WinterCity Edmonton has even created a guide for designing winter patios.
As the pandemic winter nears, what follows is a set of practical strategies and resources for design and winter maintenance in our cities and along our main streets.
Main streets have never had enough room for snow storage. Photo taken in Toronto in 1938, possibly on College Street. Image Source: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 1965 / PDP
1. Snow Storage
Ensure a designated area for snow storage. Business districts have always struggled to find space for snow storage, and with recent changes to the streetscape, this will likely become even more difficult. Consider how recent main street interventions and municipal regulations will affect where snow can be stored so that pedestrians can maintain social distancing requirements.
2. Make snow removal easy
While retractable awnings and patio covers are ideal, there are other ways to prevent snow and ice accumulation. Moveable seating is important for snow removal devices to be manoeuvred around them. Patio furniture can be removed from patios at the end of the day, which prevents snow accumulation on furniture and creates an obstruction-free surface for snow removal. It’s also important to ensure snow removal can easily occur along designated emergency fire routes. Consider the potential ease of snow removal and storage with enclosures. For example, Winnipeg requires that sidewalk and on-street patios serving alcohol be enclosed by a fence. The height and placement of required fencing can create snow removal barriers.
“The more flexible the patio is set up, the more likely it is to be used.”
Men shovelling snow together on Bay Street, Toronto in 1931. Image Source: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 22869 / PDP
3. Climate-sensitive winter maintenance
The properties of snow are constantly changing with time and temperature, which makes the classification of snow increasingly important. Some winter cities have massive amounts of snow to remove; others have freeze-thaw cycles to deal with. Do research on best practices for snow and ice control in your climate and how to prepare for different precipitation events. Preventative anti-icing agenda are increasingly preferred over responsive de-icing. That said, cities apply different strategies for different climates to ensure pedestrian safety and accessibility.
4. Figure out snow removal responsibilities ahead of time
Snow removal responsibilities are delegated differently between local governments. In some cases, the municipality is responsible for sidewalk snow removal. That’s the case in Ottawa, where their plan is to increase snow removal efforts during the pandemic in shopping neighbourhoods to make it more convenient for customers to shop. In some cases, the business association takes on snow removal responsibilities, as is the case with the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ Enviro Team. A more recent example comes from Red Deer, where several business owners are “entering into an agreement for maintaining and programming the space, including snow clearing.” If you’re planning to contract snow removal services out, make sure that the snow removal contractor is insured.
Many offices have been left vacant as a result of the pandemic. While it might seem like the least of your concerns, vacant properties that don’t have snow removal measures in place contribute to a patchwork effect, where some sidewalks are cleared and others are not. This endangers pedestrians and, for other users, the sidewalks become unusable.
Snow slide in Churchill Square, Edmonton for Winter Shake Up, 2015. Photo Credit: Photo by Mack Male / CC BY-SA 2.0
5. Use snow for decorative and aesthetic purposes
At Café Bicyclette in Edmonton, instead of discarding the removed snow from the inner courtyard, it is used as a building material for creative displays around the patio and recreational purposes such as building a snow slide. At one point, they created a snow wall, which served the dual purpose of blocking wind while keeping in the warmth and creating a picturesque winter scene. The Forks in Winnipeg encourages students to get creative with snow through an annual architectural competition to design warming huts.
6. Ensure sidewalks are wide enough
Public spaces have become even more privatized amidst the pandemic. Sidewalk and on-street patios, and raised bed gardens that protrude onto sidewalks, have raised concerns about equity and who has the right to use public space. Any inequalities that exist in public space right now, like narrowed sidewalks, will only intensify this winter with physical distancing requirements. Typical snow storage along the boulevard could be obstructed by a newly designated shared-use path or a sidewalk/parking lot patio.
7. Use winterized materials
Ensure any additional surfaces don’t degrade from snow and ice. More importantly, make sure they don’t create a slippery hazard for patrons. As some surfaces are easier to clear snow from than others, consider:
Using materials like blacktop, bricks, slate, and sandstone to absorb the sun’s heat, melt snow, and enhance warmth.
For a wood patio, adding a layer of anti-slip coating before the first snow fall.
Avoiding use of metal or glass in the streetscape as they are poor thermal insulators.
Bracebridge's annual Fire and Ice Festival brings thousands to the downtown core every year for its legendary tube run. Photo Credit: Fire and Ice Festival Bracebridge
Passable walkways are just as important in winter as in summer, if not moreso. Misplaced priorities put pedestrians in a vulnerable position each winter. Research in an Ontario community found that, during a winter snow storm, falls involving ice and snow accounted for 64% more of the injury burden than motor vehicle collisions. What’s more, sidewalks covered in snow, ice or slush prevent people from participating in society and, thereby, increase social isolation. They may also deter people from walking on streets to shop, which means small businesses suffer too.
Small businesses can’t afford to suffer anymore, so this winter give people a new reason to visit main streets. Embrace the opportunities that winter presents, and the kinds of activities that can only be enjoyed in the winter.