Toronto has cleared nearly 40 tonnes of snow from city streets

With more snow falling on the city this week, Toronto’s snow removal teams have their work cut out for them.

After a historic snowfall on January 17, the City of Toronto is still in clean-up mode. By Monday, the City had removed a whopping 17,346 tonnes of snow. Now, as of January 25, the city has carted off 39,210 tonnes of snow.

To put that into perspective, that is about one-third of the weight of the CN Tower. It’s about 375 blue whales worth of snow. That’s a lot of snow!

City workers have been scooping up the snow and taking it to designated snow storage sites. According to the City, 13,070 loads of snow have been taken off city streets.

Despite the huge amounts of snow already removed from the streets, clean-up is ongoing. There are snow removals planned for major and local roads as well as bike lanes and sidewalks.

The City has come under fire for leaving sidewalks covered in snow and ice, making it difficult for even the most agile among us to safely pass. Bike lanes, too, have been blocked by piles of snow, forcing cyclists to merge into traffic.

Snow clearance for active transportation needs to be taken seriously. Toronto is a winter city where people rely on walking and biking year-round for transportation.

Here are pictures of the Harbord bike lane taken throughout the week. 📷 Credits: Keagan Gartz.#PlowTO #BikeTO pic.twitter.com/oXugIREbW9

— Cycle Toronto (@CycleToronto) January 24, 2022

Anyone who needs snow cleared from a bike lane or sidewalk can report it to 311. To check out where snowplows are in the city, take a look at this live map here.