A big melt is on the horizon but for the moment it’s still a challenge for Calgarians to get around and it’s especially true for anyone with mobility issues.
Martin Purvis figured out how to attach his wheelchair to a snowblower using a piece of rope and a carabiner and was able to clear the snow from his neighbourhood.
“I thought of the idea because we have this rather large snowblower,” says Purvis. “It is self-propelled. It’s got several forward speeds and a couple of reverse speeds and I felt maybe there was some way that I could manage it.”
He was able to get everything up and running after a bit of trial and error.
“I tried just holding the handles but I found that just caused the snowblower to tip backwards. My next attempt was to tie the frame of the wheelchair to the two sides of the snowblower handles and that worked fairly well. It could pull me along quite well but I couldn’t turn. The third attempt involved a single pivot point and that allowed me to turn the snowblower, to back up,to go forwards and it worked,” says Purvis.
Purvis says it was so much fun he decided to clear the sidewalk in front of a few of his neighbours’ homes too.
“Once I got started I was having so much fun I couldn’t stop. I did the entire block and then I started on people’s driveways and cleared several driveways it was a lot of fun,” says Purvis.
His neighbours are thankful for his efforts calling him an inspiration to them all.
This year has been a challenging one for Calgarians with lots of snow but not a lot of thawing or melting periods which the city says makes it more important than ever for people to get out and shovel the sidewalks.
“We also remind citizens be a good neighbour, be a snow angel. Myself I actually shovel my neighbours’ walk because they have limited mobility. It's a good thing to do and it helps us all get around safer,”says Chris McGeachy with City of Calgary Roads.
“It really, really does help if people clear their sidewalks very well, some people I've noticed just kind of shovel a pathway down the centre of the sidewalk, that doesn't leave enough room if I've trying to get my scooter down or the wheelchair or trying tow a garbage can,” says Purvis.
As much fun as he’s had rigging up his snowblower, Purvis is ready to put it away and is looking forward to spring.
