BUFFALO, N.Y. — With all the complaints about the City of Buffalo's snow removal this week following Monday's storm, we're also digging for solutions if they're feasible.
2 On Your Side went looking for some answers from the man in charge of the operation to see if more can be done. We also got the perspective of one of the plow operators who is actually out on the city streets.
An update on Wednesday from Buffalo's Public Works Department reported that 95 percent of the city's residential streets have had at least one plow run, with a focus now on unfinished and dead-end streets and salting before the big freeze later this week.
From the city's published plowing plan, with an average 10-inch snow, streets should be cleared with 24 hours as the goal. But some people feel the city's response fell behind.
Are there things they could do better?
The biggest issue cited by DPW is illegally parked cars on both sides of the street restricting the plows. Other cities are aggressive with enforcement of alternate parking rules.
So we asked DPW Commissioner Michael Finn about their approach. 2 On Your Side You asked, "You don't want to give people tickets, but to get those cars out of the way and get the streets plowed?"
Finn replied, "So we are constantly working with our parking department, who has the tow trucks and is able to respond. At this point in the storm, at least we're not towing a whole block worth of cars. It's more on an individual basis."
Then there's keeping people informed about the plowing progress of Buffalo's GPS-equipped trucks. That could be maybe like the Plowtrax feature on the City of Rochester's website, where you can see if a street's been cleared.
We asked Finn "Is there anything interactive on a website or anything?"
He responded: "That's technology that we're continuously looking into. It was looked at previously, and I think at the time the technology wasn't to the point that we thought that it would be the best tool."
Finn adds private contractors have been used for actually hauling away snow, but in this case just one was used for support.
So on the plow fleet itself, would more smaller vehicles help on the narrow streets?
"As equipment gets smaller, it has less horsepower to push the snow. This was a deep and very dense snow," Finn said.
Then on numbers, the City of Buffalo says it has about 100 pieces of snow-fighting equipment, whereas Rochester lists 150, which is a mix of 70 regular plow-equipped dump trucks, 30 garbage trucks with added plow blades, 30 front-end loaders, and 20 pickup trucks with plows.
So we asked Finn: "We realize your budget is limited, but do we need to look at a larger fleet or something to try to get down to these streets?
He responded: "I think that's something that we could look at in terms of comparison," but he added, "It's also to be efficient, because a larger fleet is certainly going to cost more money."
2 On Your Side also sought some perspective from DPW plow 0perator Steve Tirone.
For the past 10 years or so, Tirone has piloted one of those 70,000-pound monsters through Buffalo city streets. And he's seen plenty out there during 12 to 16-hour shifts, including upset people who are shovelling.
"Somebody will stand at the end of the driveway with their shovel and just do not want to move," he said.
But again obviously his biggest frustration is drivers who don't follow parking regulations and perhaps hold up the plowing process. Tirone points out, "I would say 98 percent of our equipment is not equipped to get through cars parked on both sides of the street. We are trying to clean the neighborhoods. We're trying our best, and if everybody would follow those restrictions, that would make it go a lot easier and quicker."
Tirone discussed the challenging elements of plowing in the city.
"I'm mainly in North Buffalo, Riverside, that type of area. One of the most difficult, because of the 9 to 4 parking restrictions not being followed, is the West Side because 90 percent of the West Side is 9 to 4 parking."
Sometimes Tirone has to back up all the way back down a street or navigate around if he encounters a stuck or illegally parked car.
"About 5 percent of the streets that we've gone down, either people being stuck or illegally parked cars. I've had to back out of about 5 percent of them. It definitely is not easy, especially with any piece of equipment. You have to not only take into consideration the width of your vehicle, you have to take into consideration the width of the plow, if we slide or we bounce."
Tirone added: "When you have a car parked close to the corner that's illegal on a 9 to 4, sometimes you have to cross down another block, circle all the way around, just to be able to get down that street."
And yes, he has gotten stuck like other plows at times after close calls with cars. But it's just another thing to take in stride as we asked, "Do people give you a lot of grief?
He responded: "More than you know. More than you know. You just got to suck it up and you keep going."