You can’t really see it, but I took that picture during the snowstorm on Thursday. The somewhat hyper maintenance staff in Battery Park City had already plowed this section of park walkway once, as you can see, and were plowing elsewhere at the time. They were obviously on some kind of schedule to rotate through plowing all the walkways as the snow was falling.
At first glance, this seems ridiculous. Snow keeps falling and ruining the job you just accomplished. But…it’s more difficult to plow 4 inches of snow than 2 inches. Probably, about twice as hard, since most of the effort goes into physically pushing the dead weight fo snow off to one side. I suspect it’s slower, as well, to plow 4 inches than it is to plow 2 inches, although probably not twice as slow.
The amount of snow varied across the city, with 9.8 inches at the Central Park weather station. I’m going to use 10 inches because one significant figure is always easier than two. Would you rather plow 2 inches of snow five times or 10 inches once, if I’m correct and it’s about the same amount of total work? The answer is two inches five times, of course, for the same reason that you use a low gear on your bicycle when going uphill. Doing more work at a lower level of effort is easier for most people both physically and psychologically. Also, assuming that the plowing ended when the snow stopped falling, you’re done faster if only the last 2 inches has to be plowed at the end.
So my immediate reaction wasn’t just wrong, it was 180 degrees wrong. Of course, the past of me that loves snow wishes the maintenance crew had enjoyed a day off and not plowed at all.
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