Boston mayor’s chief of staff calls for gender equity in snow removal

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Apparently woke snowplowing is a thing — at least in Boston.

Radio host and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr took aim at Mayor Michelle Wu’s new chief of staff, Tiffany Chu, who went on the record during a teleconference to talk about the inequalities of snow removal.

“It’s about snow-clearing and if the concept of snow-clearing can be sexist, and the answer is, yes, wholeheartedly!” she said during last year’s National Shared Mobility Conference, according to Carr.

Chu believes that bicycle lanes should get plowed first, before any roads, citing a decade-old study out of Sweden.

“In 2012, a number of cities in Sweden adopted a gender-equal plowing strategy where pedestrian cycle lanes were cleared [first], especially near schools and day-care centres and then later on major streets,” said Chu during the online event.

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“What they discovered was that this existing societal practice actually disadvantaged women because they were the ones who were more likely to walk and travel with children while men who are predominantly working and commuting benefited from those major corridors being plowed first.”

Carr wrote in response: “So are you saying women… don’t work? That only men commute?”

Good question.

He also pointed out the benefits of having major thoroughfares being plowed first, particularly “people who call 911, whose houses are on fire, who need an ambulance,” adding that it might not be so easy for a fire truck to maneuver down a bike lane.

Equity, though.

“There was actually a gender equity, panel or committee in Sweden where they did some data analysis and discovered that 79% of the pedestrian injuries had occurred during winter,” Chu further explained. “Of that 79%, 69% were women, two-thirds of which were individuals slipping on ice.”

In a statement from Wu’s office announcing Chu’s hiring, the mayor raves, “Tiffany brings a bold vision for what cities can do and how innovative teams can reshape what’s possible. Her planning and team-building skills have already made impacts around the world. I’m confident that as our next Chief of Staff, she will bring our communities together to deliver on our brightest future.”

The press release also says that one of Chu’s favourite things about Boston is “the City’s walkability.”