With the first large snow and ice storm of the season expected to hit southwestern Ontario on Thursday, drivers should be prepared for things to get dicey.
Environment Canada is calling for freezing rain and between 10 and 15 centimetres of snow.
The City of Cambridge says it's prepared for the storm and is ready to send out their fleet of snow-plows as soon as the word is given.
“We have 11 trucks that will go out during a minor snow event and up to 30 that will go out for a major event,” said Michael Hausser, director of operations for infrastructure services at the city.
Even though the city will be plowing as many roads as possible, it doesn’t guarantee they can get to all of them before the morning rush.
This is where tools like the crowd-sourced navigation app Waze comes into play.
The app recently added unplowed roads to its list of warnings to help drivers avoid unsafe driving conditions.
Users can open the app and report a hazardous road just as they would a speed camera or pothole.
During Toronto’s last big storm in January 2022, weather hazards reported by Waze drivers went up 8.6 per cent (including unplowed roads, Fog, Hail, Flood and Ice).
Traffic also dropped significantly. In Cambridge and Waterloo region it dipped 15 per cent compared to the days before the storm, according to a press release from Waze.
Trucks from the City of Cambridge will start plowing as soon as a snow event has been declared. They operate in two shifts starting at 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
For drivers that want to plan their routes before heading out the door, the city offers a live map that shows which streets have been plowed.
Hausser said they start with major roads first and then move on to the secondary roads.
There are still several residential streets that do not get plowed unless a major snow event is declared, and Hausser advises to drive cautiously on those roads.
“It can take several hours for us to clear the roads depending on the time of day the trucks are out, but we can usually make three or more passes a shift if the traffic is light,” he added.
Residents are also responsible for clearing the snow on sidewalks in front of their home up to 36 hours after snowfall.
The city's website includes a map highlighting city owned vs. privately owned sidewalks, detailing who is responsible to clear sidewalks of ice and snow.
