Say what you want about Montréal’s flaws — and it certainly has many — I think we do a couple of things quite well: festivals and snow removal.
Now, some might argue we have too many festivals, while others are annoyed when the snow doesn’t get cleared fast enough, but when folks from other cities look at our city’s snow-removal process, they are usually quite impressed. Heck, after living here all my life, I’m still impressed at the whole process.
Streets are spread with abrasive/salt and plowed while the storm is happening, and once a minimum amount of snow has fallen — 2.5 cm or about an inch, in case you’re interested — the clearing operation begins, one side of a street at a time. When the special temporary orange no-parking signs go up after a snowstorm, I eagerly await the telltale sound of tow trucks coming around to tell drivers to move their cars out of the way of the incoming onslaught. (This part is definitely no fun if you don’t have a garage or a driveway.) An app, INFO-Neige (“Info Snow”), also helps us keep track of what streets are being cleared, when. If your car is parked on the street, you can enter its location in the app and get notifications to remind you to move it before the plows come by, to avoid getting towed.
Little sidewalk plows come by and push the snow onto the street, where giant plows three or four times the size come by and scoop it all up, blowing the collected piles into massive trucks. Multiple convoys lumber across the city, like rows of ants on an unstoppable mission.
But wait — there’s more! The plows often come by a second time, picking up any remaining small bits of snow that the first convoy didn’t grab. This round is particularly satisfying to watch, as the plows scrape the edge of the sidewalk, in attempt to have a thorough cleanup.
The trucks take all the amassed snow and either dump it down sewer chutes, or unload it at various surface snow dumps around the city. The piles are so massive that if you happen to go by one in May or June, the snow still might not be melted!
Apparently I’m not the only person fascinated by snow clearing in Montréal. If you do a search on YouTube, there are plenty of videos showing the operation in detail. Enjoy, if this sort of thing is your cup of tea. 🙂
Kathryn Presner 
11 replies on “SnowBGone”
It’s incredibly fascinating to me, to see life from another part of the world. I love snow, and wish it happened more often – so seeing such joy come from pushing away the snow is amazing. But it is very much a sight to behold!!
Thanks for reading, Alx! And don’t worry — there’s plenty of snow left everywhere, even after it gets cleared away from sidewalks and streets. The clearing process just makes it much easier and safer to get around the city on foot and by car. 😀
Aaaah, that makes sense!! Still get the beauty of the snow, just with less danger 😛
Wonderful post, Kathryn, and thanks for the photos. I have never seen snow in my life and 2018 is that year I wish things change. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the post, Arun! Here’s hoping for some snow in your not-so-distant future. I’d send you some from here if I could — we certainly have plenty to spare. 😉
Stumbled upon this thread. I guess I can check off snow sometime soon, yay! 😁
That is fascinating! All that effort just for motor vehicles! What would happen if they left the snow there and everyone got skis or ski-doos instead?
It’s also for people on foot. It’s extremely difficult to get around the city on foot after a storm with huge snow banks everywhere!
Ski-doos are used a lot in rural areas, but not practical in the city. On the other hand, you do see folks on cross-country skis after big storms!
Check this out!
Now that I live in a high-rise apartment and have no car, I don’t have to deal with any of that snowy mess anymore. You’ve made me really nostalgic, though. NOT! 😀
That’s a hell of a lot of snow. It snows here in Ireland for about two minutes at a time, and each time I run out screaming, “Snow, Snow, Snow.” But then the rain melts it away.
🙂