There’s an extra challenge for pedestrians living in cities with winter weather that lasts for months of below-zero temperatures and snow. While municipalities can’t prevent cold weather, their policies and actions on clearing sidewalks have a significant impact on our ability to walk safely in the winter. Regina, Saskatchewan where Project Pedestrian originates, finally passed a bylaw in 2021 after years of awareness-raising, which requires residents to keep the sidewalks “free of snow and ice”. While some residents and businesses ignore the bylaw and some residents are physically unable to clear the snow and can’t afford to pay others to do it, sidewalks in Regina have improved since the bylaw was passed. However, it’s the rare block where every property has made their stretch of sidewalk passable, and people who use canes, walkers, strollers or wheelchairs are not able to navigate most of the city’s streets from November through March. It’s hard to understand why the City and many of its residents think this is an acceptable situation and that fixing it is impossible.

Many cities take on the responsibility to clear the sidewalks just as they do the roads. Toronto requires residents to clear the sidewalks in front of their properties, but when more than 2cm of snow has fallen, the City takes over. Montreal, which can get a lot of snow, commits significant resources into clearing snow from sidewalks and roads. Some cities heat their sidewalks so snow and ice can’t accumulate. Swedish cities adjusted their snow clearing policies to prioritize pedestrians after looking at things through the lens of equality, as the video below explains.

If heated sidewalks aren’t available and your city doesn’t clear the sidewalks, you need to make sure your footwear has the best possible grips for ice and snow; this study by the KITE Research Institute led to the purchase of the best gripping snow boots I’ve ever had, though the long strides of summer and autumn still have to be replaced by penguin-like scuttling across the most treacherous stretches. Fingers crossed I make it through the winter without a slip and fall – the morning I wrote this my spouse slipped and fell while out walking Marlene.