ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) - It’s been several years since St. Louis residents saw a major snow storm and some aren’t familiar with the city’s snow removal policy.

“Our trucks as you can see behind me aren’t very good at making u-turns at the end of a dead ends,” said Kent Flake, St. Louis Street Commissioner

St. Louis has three tiers for snow removal: major streets, secondary roads and hill routes. They plow 450 miles of roads.

But many streets are left snow covered and as the snow melts and re-freezes, they can become dangerous.

“You hold your breath and hope for the best,” said Julie Fox on what she does while driving up McCune Avenue in Cliffton Heights.

Flake says the plows are 12-feet wide and most of the city streets are too narrow with parked cars.

“I had a plow truck down a side street, made it about 2/3 of the way down and a car parked 7 feet on a diagonal from the curb, so I had to back up 300 feet and that was it for that street,” said Flake.

But when asked whether they should invest in smaller trucks, Flake said that would hinder their ability to finish up major routes in a timely manner. Partly because while MoDOT plows state roads like Manchester in St. Louis County, they don’t in the city.

“That’s an agreement in place a long time, not really sure who agreed to it,” said Flake.

While Julie cautiously made her way up the hill, many people turned to ride-share programs like Lyft to get around during the snow storm.

“I actually had a lot of people who either one couldn’t get their cars out or left their cars on the highway,” said James Little, a Lyft driver who said business was brisk all weekend.

Flake said the Streets Department will come plow or salt a non-snow route street if you request it through the Citizen Service Bureau.

“May not be in a super timely manner because we only had a few trucks that can do it but we will get there as soon as we can,” said Flake.

You can tweet the CSB at @stlcsb or call them at (314) 622-4800.