by our student correspondent, Nicholas N.
This winter has been unpredictable with the constant temperature change from positive to negative, but its important to remember that even just a little snow on a sidewalk can melt and turn into a skating rink within a couple of hours. Icy sidewalks significantly impact people’s daily commutes. Navigating these frozen paths is more than an inconvenience; it is dangerous and can cause serious injury. The importance of clear sidewalks cannot be emphasized enough.
So please, do your neighbours and the whole community a favour and clean your sidewalks, even just putting salt or sand on the ice helps out a ton. If you like to wake up early in the mornings to shovel your snow and live on a street with sidewalks, you can make someone’s day by shovelling their sidewalk too. By doing this, us, the kids walking to school in the morning, will also have a safer travel.
Now, let’s not forget the impact of driveways on our morning commutes. Shoveling even a little bit of the road in front of our driveways, while ensuring we don’t pile up the snow illegally (it is illegal to shovel snow in the road and leave it there), can significantly contribute to preventing ice dams and icy roads. This small effort will make it easier for everyone to drive safely.
If you clear in front of your driveway and a little bit next to the sidewalk, you also won’t have water buildup constantly making new ice. This is especially helpful on narrow streets because it can make it easier to pull onto the side of the road to let someone pass you when you are driving.
Let’s use the new year as a fresh start, leaving our grudges behind, and start lending helping hands to our neighbours to make our streets cleaner and our community stronger.
Click here to the New Brighton Community News home page for the latest New Brighton community updates.
