Walking through Utah’s unshoveled winter wonderland? Good luck with that

Overnight storms made even major streets along the Wasatch Front tough to navigate Tuesday, but drivers had it better than many pedestrians, who had to carve new paths to their destinations.

Trevor Stephens' usual walk to the Murray Central FrontRunner station is about 10 minutes, but he quickly realized he'd miss his train if he stuck to the snow-buried sidewalks.

"You couldn't see the sidewalk at all, just mountains of snow," he said.

So he took his commute to the plowed street.

"I was getting sloshed by cars driving by," Stephens said. "I know other people were having the same problem because I could see their footsteps."

Most Utahns do use cars to get around, Stephens said, "but it would be awesome" if sidewalks were cleared at the same pace that city plows hit the road.

Local cities have laws for sidewalk-clearing after snowstorms, but they apply to individual residents and business owners, and aren't aggressively enforced.

In Murray, city public services director Doug Hill said the most frequent complaints he gets are from residents who find that snowplows have just dumped a mound of snow onto their just-shoveled driveways.

"It's hard for the plows to avoid the driveways," Hill said.

Murray will cite property and business owners if they don't clear the sidewalks within 24 hours, he said, "but they don't write many" citations.

"Usually all it takes is a good talking-to," he said. "People are a little more tolerant if they still see snow piled on sidewalks after a few days, but after that, complaints will come in."

Uncleared sidewalks are particularly problematic for downtown Salt Lake City resident Wendy Wyatt, who uses a wheelchair to get around. Property and business owners don't always scoop up the snow in a timely manner, she said, which can result in her being a virtual prisoner in her own home after a storm.

The amount of snow on the sidewalks last week forced her to travel in the road for much of a trip to Smith's last week, she said, and encountered others in the same predicament.

"I met a really old, frail lady with a walker. She was trying to make her way over to Smith's too. I hope she made it OK," Wyatt said. "Many sidewalks were icy and there were no cleared curb cuts."

Those curb cuts — the ramps that lead from the sidewalk into an intersection — go unshoveled "for weeks at a time, all over the city," she said, piling up with dirty snow or turning into icy mini-lakes in the street.

Salt Lake City's municipal code says that snow and ice must be cleared from sidewalks adjacent to one's property within 24 hours after the end of a storm. That path must be at least 42 inches wide and run the full length of the sidewalk, including corners and curb ramps. Ice must be removed to bare pavement and treated with ice melt or sand. Fines range between $50 and $200.

"So far, the complaints we've received have been fairly standard," said Matthew Rojas, communications director for Salt Lake City. "People are wondering when streets will get plowed, and which will get plowed first."

He says that people complain about snow-blocked sidewalks but that clearing them is mostly the responsibility of property owners.

"We encourage people to help each other out and shovel their neighbor's walks if they don't have the means of doing it themselves," he said.

Some couldn't wait for others clear out the white stuff. Shoveling out a path from a bus stop in front of the United Methodist Thrift Store in Kearns on Tuesday was 71-year-old Lloyd Stinger, who had triple heart bypass surgery in 2015.

"I'm just trying to clear this out so the people and customers who ride the bus can get to the store," said Stinger. "Our snow blower broke down, but when it gets heavy like this, you can't clear the whole sidewalk, you can only clear a path. So it's just me. My cardiologist might say it's too much of a workout."

rkane@sltrib.com