Q&A
Snow plowing routes for bike lanes and specialized equipment
0:23:00
ยท
134 sec
DSNY officials discuss the department's approach to clearing snow from bike lanes, including the use of specialized equipment and dedicated routes.
- DSNY uses All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) specifically for clearing bike lanes
- The department has 47 ATVs in its fleet
- Bike lanes have dedicated snow removal routes, separate from regular street routes
- ATV routes are deployed simultaneously with regular salting and plowing operations
- The ATV program evolved from a pilot to a permanent program over several years
- The current fleet of 47 ATVs is sufficient to service every protected bike lane in the city
- DSNY also uses skid steer loaders for clearing heavier snow, bus stops, and crosswalks
- The addition of specialized equipment like ATVs has created more jobs during the snow season
Shaun Abreu
0:23:00
Okay.
0:23:01
Are bike lanes, snow plowing routes incorporated into street routes?
0:23:05
Or are these, like, their own routes?
Javier Lojan
0:23:08
So, we've made again, just to talk about some of the investments, you can see a really good picture here.
0:23:14
So this is what we call our all terrain vehicles, the ATV.
0:23:18
We have 47 of these vehicles in our fleet, and we have dedicated routes for them.
0:23:23
And that allows us to focus on bike lanes simultaneously as roadways so they have their own dedicated routes.
Shaun Abreu
0:23:30
Are those the skid steer loaders?
Javier Lojan
0:23:31
No.
0:23:32
Skid steers are the other ones.
0:23:33
Correct.
0:23:33
Yes.
Shaun Abreu
0:23:34
Okay.
0:23:34
What's the difference between them?
Javier Lojan
0:23:35
So the skid steers are are more for clearing manual when we when we get into a heavier snow, when we clear bus stops, crosswalks, if we wanna make piles.
0:23:46
You know, if we get a lot of snow, that's when we would use skid steers.
0:23:51
Yeah.
0:23:51
Yeah.
Joshua Goodman
0:23:52
I just wanna add one thing, council member, about the about these pieces.
0:23:55
This is just one of the ultimate examples of a government pilot becoming a permanent program.
0:24:00
This is like when we talk about, you know, pilots that continue forever and never go anywhere.
0:24:04
Back in 2015, we tested one kind of bike lane vehicle.
0:24:07
It didn't work that well.
0:24:09
Then we got a different one, and we got one of them, and one of them worked really well.
0:24:13
Then we got a fleet of 47, but they were leased, and they worked really well.
0:24:16
So we bought a fleet of 47 of them.
0:24:18
Like, it's just the exactly how it should be going from pilot to to permanent execution.
Shaun Abreu
0:24:22
What do you call these?
Joshua Goodman
0:24:23
This is an ATV, bike lane ATV.
Shaun Abreu
0:24:26
Okay.
0:24:26
And how many of those
Joshua Goodman
0:24:27
were purchased?
0:24:27
47.
0:24:28
47.
0:24:30
Which is the amount to be able to service every protected bike lane Oh.
0:24:33
At a simultaneous level of service as the car lanes.
Shaun Abreu
0:24:36
Okay.
0:24:37
If bike lanes have their own distinct routes, when are those routes deployed in relation to
Javier Lojan
0:24:42
when city brining and salting operations begin?
0:24:45
Simultaneously.
0:24:46
So as soon as we go into any kind of spreading operations, they're deployed at the same time.
Shaun Abreu
0:24:50
Okay.
0:24:51
It's fair it's also fair to say that having those ATVs also create more jobs, right, during the snow season?
Chris Banks
0:24:57
Yeah.
Javier Lojan
0:24:57
Yeah.
0:24:57
I mean, that that that's part of, you know, what I mentioned before, you know, this administration, mayor Adams, has committed to, you know, giving us one of the highest headcounts we've had.
0:25:06
And we're able to staff, you know, these kinds of equipments, you know, at the same time as as the other operations.
0:25:12
So yeah.
0:25:14
When was