The city of Burlington is revising its winter maintenance plan this year in hopes of better-accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists.

The Department of Public Works says the purpose is to find the best ways to make the city’s 95 miles of street and 130 miles of sidewalk safer during and after snowstorms. Each year, DPW analyzes equipment inspection, salting and plowing procedures, and snow route assignment for its fleet of plow trucks.

DPW Director Chapin Spencer says this year, the staff went to Montreal to get suggestions on managing protected bike lanes in the winter. They decided to do something different with their 10 sidewalk tractors.

“One of the pieces we’ll be doing with our sidewalk tractors this year is having our regular sidewalk routes attend to the bike lanes as they are clearing the sidewalks so that we are a little more timely in our attention to the city’s bike lane network,” he said.

Spencer says while the modified plan brings new attention to sidewalks and bike lanes, it aims to prioritize all three traveling methods.

“Our snow and ice control plan really talks about the safety of travel for all modes and we are endeavoring to do the best we can to maintain our roads and sidewalks for the public to travel safely regardless of how they travel,” he said. “Keep people moving safely in our city is job one.”

Spencer says a challenge Burlington faces is the number of curb cuts—the opening to driveways and business parking lots—along the roads. They pose a threat to pedestrians when homeowners plow the snow from their driveways and leave it on the sidewalk. People in Burlington say that creates treacherous conditions for them.

“They block people from walking on the sidewalks. It’s bad enough we don’t have that many sidewalks as it is so when they do plow, they don’t care,” said Jamel Kirkland.

Bicyclists say they’ve experienced the same thing.

“The snow is always in places that you don’t want it to be or it piles up around mailboxes and stuff like that,” said Justin Siegel. “It’s like being on an obstacle course with slippery roads on top of that.”

DPW is requesting that homeowners leave the snow on their properties and not in the city’s right-of-way.

Burlington’s narrow streets have also proven to be an issue.

“Last winter, we had a challenge with a recycling truck unable to get through a narrow street and there have been requests over time about emergency vehicle access and people concerned about whether or not there’s sufficient clearance to get emergency vehicles through,” said Spencer. “So, we worked with the fire department and the Public Works Commission on a few residential streets, most of them dead ends or very short streets, where we have seasonal parking restrictions in place.”

According to Spencer, they’ve modified parking hours on some residential streets to make sure all vehicles can get in.

DPW is also upgrading its snow ban lights to make them more efficient so that they can turn on and off. Spencer says that will allow crews to spend more time in the plow trucks.

Spencer says they have 10 snowplow trucks and it can take anywhere between 5 to 8 hours for a full fleet to clear the streets of Burlington. He’s encouraging everyone to drive slowly and make room for plows on the roads.

“Clearly everybody needs to travel safely, take the time. Our crews are on call and our crews are ready,” he said. “Last two Christmases, our crews were working. We’ll work Thanksgiving if needed but we need people to take time and give room for the plows to get their job done.”

Like last year, the city still has $285,000 budgeted for 4,000 tons of salt and magnesium chloride.

DPW will present its snow and ice control plan before the Public Works Commission on Dec. 18. The public is welcomed to attend and give feedback.