3 - When there is a thaw, we should let the snow melt instead of removing it. 

Melting snow with the help of the sun can be advantageous, but it’s also risky. If the temperature drops after the snow thaws, the wet snow freezes into chunks or patches of ice. Sidewalks become icy, snowbanks turn into ice blocks and sewer grates become blocked. In such scenarios, it can be much more complex, time-consuming and sometimes nearly impossible to correct the situation.

If all the snow was left on the ground, with all the trampling and thaw-refreeze cycles, by the end of the winter we would have a layer of snow and ice about 1.5 m deep.

 4 - If more salt was spread on sidewalks, they would be less icy. 

Salt “melts” ice relatively well when the outside temperature is between 0⁰C and -15⁰C. When temperatures are colder, the salt loses its effectiveness. This is why gravel is used as an abrasive to make surfaces less slippery. 

In fact, mixtures of salt and gravel are often used on city streets and sidewalks. This provides the advantages of both products. However, neither is magic. 

Unfortunately, these products have an impact on the environment. Salt is corrosive and can damage various materials (clothing, metals, underground pipes, etc.) as well as plants. The gravel accumulates on the ground: It must be collected and decontaminated in the spring. All of these operations require the use of vehicles across tens of thousands of kilometres each winter.

Did you know that Montréal uses an average of 150,000 tons of salt each winter?

5 - The city often waits too long before starting to clear snow.

Snow removal is a matter of strategy. To decide what strategy to deploy and when to start, you need to know when the precipitation starts, how fast it falls and whether it will turn into freezing rain. 

Here are some examples:

• Snow that falls quickly erases all traces of the snow removal teams’ work. You may have the impression that the street or sidewalk was not cleared. These teams have to finish their routes before clearing the same location a second time.
• When freezing rain follows a snowfall, it is best to leave a thin layer of snow on the ground. This absorbs some of the rain, which makes it easier to clear away, rather than trying to melt ice that has fallen on a completely clear sidewalk.

6 - Some trucks dump snow directly into the river. 

Each winter, snow removal crews collect, transport and dispose of an average of 12 million m³ of snow, the equivalent of 10 Olympic stadiums full of snow. This snow can take two paths:

• Most of it is stored on huge plots of land where it forms mountains several tens of metres high. This snow will take several months to melt. Any debris that remains (trash buried in the snow at the time of removal) will be disposed of in the garbage.
• A quarter of the snow is dumped into one of the sewer chutes: huge holes that open into underground pipes. The heat of the wastewater helps melt the snow before it arrives at the treatment plant, which treats all the water before discharging it into the river. 

7 - Towing is a good source of revenue for the city. 

Every winter, an average of 50,000 cars are towed away because their owners violated the snow removal parking ban. A single tow delays the removal convoy by about 10 minutes.

When you add up the cost of the tow truck and the salaries of the snow removal teams who have to stop loading in order to wait for the cars to be moved, the tows are a loss for the municipal government and the entire population.