Winter has a strange way of taking cities like Boston and environs by surprise. Cities in the region react to barrages of snow and ice like stupefied Floridians who never imagined the outside could be colder than their refrigerators.

Cities here don’t have any plans for snow removal. If there is any accumulation it becomes evident that the actual “plan” is to push snow out of the way of drivers and hope it melts soon.

Residents are required to clear sidewalks, but they have to go to work, get into fights over parking spaces and make french toast, so they don’t bother, or do a half-assed job. Sidewalks are so bad days after a storm that people have to use the street. And this is “America’s Walking City”.

Walking, biking and transit can be reliable transportation options during winter. But only if a city is willing to clear the snow for such uses the same way it does for cars.

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