The City may change from year to year, but the winter stays the same: it snows.
Here’s a shot of snow removal on Preston, looking north, in 1920. Each trucker had his bin filled by hand shovels, there is a crew off to the right.
The first building on the left is now Pubwells. All the houses shown in this pic are still there. The building in the far distance closing off the end of Preston was the factory where the transatlantic cables were made. It was the longest building in the British Empire at the time. It was partly demolished in the late 1960’s; and the rest of it was demolished in 1982.
And here is the City bike path multiuser path (MUP) along the north side of Albert as it goes through LeBreton Flats. A snowblower had gone by sometime previously removing the snow bank from the curb line of Albert. But with all the space available, did he have to put smack dab in the centre of the MUP ? Or is this some sort of comment about the priority of cleaning the roads at the expense of dumping snow on a previously-cleaned path?
You’d think with all this motorized, mechanized modern machinery City works crews could, you know, maybe redirect the snow discharge shute like someplace else?
And lastly, a shot from elsewhere, taken just a few days ago, on the road to Whistler:
Great picture from 1920, nice to compare to 92 years ago.
I love to see historic pictures of Ottawa. Thanks for posting.
The picture from B.C. reminds me how much I dislike those “Bike Route – Cross Here When Safe” signs. These signs very often appear where ramps exit the highway. The implication is that cyclists have to act differently from regular vehicles – in a way which, to my mind, is more dangerous. Instead of staying to the right in the ongoing lane, cyclists are encouraged ride in the exit lane and then cross back perpendicularly at the last possible point in order to stay on the highway. This often requires stopping and sometimes dismounting to cross a lane of fast moving traffic – all to keep going in the direction in which you were already traveling.
I have two problems with this. Firstly it is incovenient and arguably less safe for cyclists, promoting an appearance of second-class-citizenship. Secondly it reinforces an attitude in drivers. By effectively removing the privilege of right-of-way from the bike rider, it does nothing to enforce the habit of drivers to look for cyclists when they change lanes.
Steve: I certainly understand your point, and sometimes wish your way was installed at a particular right turn lane. I hate gutter running into a right turn lane and then having to get out of it. Especially when its an optional right turn or striaght thru lane. On the other hand, the other “solution” is one of those mini bike lanes that goes straight through and cars have to cross it to exit right … these make me nervous because the cars are going so fast I am afraid they will run me over “Whoops didn’t see him”. I run into this all the time, eg Island Park at the ORP when going south to get to Loblaws. And somehow adding that bike channel makes the whole road set up even wider and bigger which encourages traffic to go faster and more aggressively. Ugh.