Silly Hall?

On certain parts of my bicycle commute, I'm still having to ride on the sidewalk because of the amount of sand and pea gravel covering the shoulders of the road.  Being a year round cyclist, I'm in it for the long haul and want to ride as safely as possible - so riding way out in traffic to avoid riding in the "S**T" strikes me as being less than prudent.

The S**t

So I wrote an email to City Hall:  "As a bicycle commuter, I need to ask what logic the city uses in terms of what streets to sweep first of winter sand and gravel?  A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me how the street sweeping machines went up and down her residential street four times in one morning.  My own residential street was swept last week and yet the main commuter routes that I ride to get to work are still covered in last winter's debris.
I have confidence that you know best how to clean our streets so would you mind explaining to me why residential streets are being cleaned before arterial roads?"


In our neck of the woods, it can be mid May before the streets are completely cleared of winter traction material but I look forward to the day when I can safely ride on all the roads lining my commute-route and not have to swerve out of the way of pedestrians who have every right to be on the sidewalks.