Tuesday, November 28, 2006

How many?

Yes, I know. According to this story Vancouver is the land that doesn't "do" winter. But the following line is my favourite in the story.

"All 34 snow removal trucks were out working in Vancouver as crews tried to keep ahead of the slush and grime churned up by cars weaving their way through downtown streets."

Thirty-four. Are you kidding me? Thirty-freaking-four?

Iqaluit has about 8,000 people and I think we probably have close to half that amount. I don't know how many St. John's has, but I promise you it's more than that.

Thirty-four snow removal trucks for a city of two million people.

Yeah, that city is fucked for the rest of the week.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cat makes an excellent point. (And illustrates why I will never, ever consider a move to Edmonton.)

In addition, you don't tie up money in a fleet of vehicles that (a)you might need for a week out of every five years or so and (b) depreciate fairly quickly so you truly not getting good value out of them. You can alleviate that problem only so far--some of the plows in St. John's and the province are actually multi-purpose heavy equipment and the plow blades are installed every October. I seem to recall one year when an early snowfall took the province by surprise. Snowclearing on the highway was difficult because the blades hadn't been installed on the trucks yet that year and equipment was at a premium.

Besides--isn't that what the army is for? Jeez, it worked for Toronto....

Anonymous said...

One of my favourite statistics (I don't know if it is current as I've known it for years) is that the big Island of Hawaii has more snow plows than Victoria BC. Hawaii has one, Victoria none.

Anonymous said...

Ummm. 22deg C in Omaha today... he he he.