This winter in Columbus, we received a lot of snowfall over multiple days. With temperatures consistently below freezing, the snow didn’t melt and accumulated. Weather events, especially snow, can interfere with travel and make conditions extremely hazardous. Snow removal is an essential service to allow people to travel to work, school, and more. The city prioritizes major roads and has published a map system (warriorwatch.columbus.gov/ww) showing which roads are priority 1, 2, or 3, with the lowest priority being residential roads. This website also shows road service in real time during a snowstorm. This data shows that there are more roads with a level 2 priority in areas like Old North Columbus and Clintonville than more impoverished areas like Linden. The real time data also shows more roads being serviced first in wealthier areas. Many level 2 roads in Linden have not been serviced while level 3 roads in other areas are. Residential areas near Gahanna also have many more level 2 residential roads than areas closer to downtown. This causes these areas to be serviced much earlier than others. The priority of servicing wealthier areas during the snow removal process makes weather events a large hazard for impoverished areas. Car accidents and injuries are more common due to the lack of road treatment, especially when people can’t afford to miss a day of work. This is an example of systemic injustice because the city prioritizes more roads in wealthier areas than poorer areas. On top of this, level 2 roads in wealthier areas also get serviced earlier according to live data from the city. While it is impossible to put all roads at a high priority, and servicing busier roads first is important, the city still does not treat all areas equally. In weather events like the ones this winter, some areas may not be plowed before the next snowstorm, making conditions worse and focusing treatment back to level 1 roads. The city should rethink areas of it’s road priority map to fairly treat wealthy and impoverished areas more similarly in order to reduce systemic injustice against poverty.
This issue can be related to the concept of the Self and the Other from Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. Wealth differences create a “Self” (wealthy) and an “Other” (poor). In this case, the city is prioritizing the Self over the Other which further separates them from each other.
Inequality due to snow removal is also discussed in this article from Niagara Falls (https://www.niagara-gazette.com/opinion/guest-view-the-inequality-in-niagara-falls-snow-removal/article_cecda884-0d51-11ea-bbc0-4b927c21be05.html). This article discusses how snow pushed onto sidewalks also shows systemic injustice, giving priority to those who can afford to own cars instead of relying on bikes and walking.
This photo shows a large number of priority 2 roadways (pink) in a wealthy area of Columbus.
This photo shows the contrast in the number of priority roads in Linden, a less wealthy region of the city.
