Winter weather conditions require commuters to plan ahead
The snowstorm of Jan. 15 saw upwards of 40 centimetres of snow dumped on the capital region in less than 24 hours.
Both the City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau issued winter overnight parking bans, and Environment Canada issued an orange warning due to the heavy snow and reduced visibility issues.
Another major winter weather event was in the works as a polar vortex dipped across the country starting Jan. 24. Temperatures were expected to remain well below zero until Sunday, with wind chill projected to be in the -30s to -40s C range.
Many commuters, including Algonquin students, find themselves having to adjust their travel plans when winter weather hits.
Miranda Betker, a second-year business management and entrepreneurship student, says that while she considers the weather before she leaves home, growing up in Northern Ontario prepared her very well for extreme winter conditions.
“Where I’m from, we have so much snow — down here, this is nothing compared to what I’m used to,” she said. “Pretty much every year we get nailed.”
Betker walks to school, but when she does use her car in the winter, she’s prepared.
“I can’t plug my car in where my parking lot is, but I’ll pull my wipers up and start my car 10 minutes before I have to leave,” she said, adding “make sure you have all-season wiper fluid.”
Payton Fleming, a first-year student in pre-health sciences, lives an hour and a half drive outside of Ottawa, staying with a relative from Ottawa during the week and using OC Transpo to get to and from the college.
Similar to Betker, Fleming makes sure to winterize her vehicle before the season starts.
“Always make sure to get the winter tires on before the snow…and change the windshield fluid to the stuff that’s meant for frozen (weather),” said Fleming.
“Other than that, just make sure my snowbrush is in my car — sometimes I forget and that’s not good.”
Public transit users also have to contend with winter conditions.
Georgia Griffin is in the early childhood education program at Algonquin and buses each day from Gatineau.
She generally spends up to 3.5 hours on the bus per day, commuting both ways — and when winter storms hit, sometimes more.
“For one, I have to leave earlier. I have to pack a bunch of different clothes because it’s cold and I’ll be standing outside,” Griffin said. “I’ll be waiting (already) for 10 minutes, and then the bus won’t show up because it got cancelled because of the weather — and then I’m kind of screwed.”
She added that when there is a big snowfall, the bus ride can be tedious.
“When I woke up that morning and saw all that snow coming down, I did not want to go…I had to leave (even) earlier to get there, like two hours. It was probably the longest bus ride of my life. I was loving it.”
While Algonquin College remained open and classes ran on Jan. 15, the college did post a winter storm warning to its Facebook page advising students and staff to take caution when travelling to and from campus, and to remain in contact with professors.
