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Comment by michaelmior | Hacker News Reader

One thing that I was surprised wasn't mentioned is the impact that I believe weather must have had on the development of the Path. Winters in Toronto get rather cold and snowy. Even with a dense downtown core, walking a few blocks outside can be rather unpleasant.

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I've been told the intent of the PATH was to make sure that people from Montreal could take the train to Union, walk to Scotiabank Arena and watch the Habs beat the crap out of the Leafs without getting snowed on.

Top notch Canadian lore right here!

There must have been something lost in translaction as the Soctiabank Arena is right beside Union station.

Perhaps they were talking about Maple Leaf Gardens? It is a more substantial walk.

Toronto Maple Leafs played at Maple Leaf Gardens until Feb 1999. The PATH was created before then.

The portion of the PATH connecting Union Station to the ACC is a few hundred metres at most.

I can't see how anyone in Toronto would help people from Montreal enjoy a Habs win over the Leafs. :)

Torontonians call it the "ACC", (short for Air Canada Centre, before its current rebranding to Scotiabank Arena - Google Maps knows both). Also, it's "Skydome", not Rogers Centre. :)

I should clarify I was told this by a guy who lives in Montreal, who apparently was retelling the story he heard from a guy who lives in Toronto with minor editorializing.

Well, Air Canada's HQ is based in Quebec. So maybe the C-suite at Air Canada pulled some strings at Toronto City Hall.

Not sure how the Habs have lost their way in the past few years. First-pick of Quebec's hockey players helped a lot I guess.

The Habs lost their way much earlier than that. They were the cultural identity ~50 years ago. They instigated a revolution. Nowadays they're just a cog in an American empire.

Tbf it said could, not would: the potential for watching the win is what entices; without game fixing it'd be good sportsmanship to not shit on a person's favorite if one wants anything from said person.

Yeah I was going to say, the ACC is basically connected to Union already, you don't need some complex system of tunnels to get from one to the other.

You should indicate that this is a joke. There’s no team more hated in Toronto than Montreal.

Maybe the Leafs.

Toronto is relatively balmy compared with every other significant Canadian city east of the rockies and it's not in the snow belt.

What it does get is vast seas of road snot a pedestrian has to wade through at every intersection. That alone is reason to stick to PATH between October and May.

the fuck is "road snot"?

Probably the slush and slurry from melting snow, salt, and road debris. It's often black once the debris reaches a certain density.

Expanding on the other comment, it's the mixture of snow, slush, salt, and loads of sand/grit that gets churned up by car tires into a brown and sticky slime. It sticks to boots, gets caked on cars behind the wheels, and gets tracked shockingly far into buildings. It's sort of like a "slushee" consistency but made out of nasty brown goo instead of corn syrup.

:-O

sounds awful

a.k.a. brown snow. And yes it is truly awful.

There's rarely any slush on the streets before Christmas. Back when I lived in Toronto I used the PATH between January and March

as far as Canada goes, Toronto's winters are pretty mild. Still, it is, indeed, nice to be able to stay inside, as well as avoid traffic.

Lol, I actually agree on the 'as far as Canada goes'.. but many of us in Toronto aren't Canadian. The winters are pretty bad to me as a foreigner. But to be honest, I'm not as impacted by the cold as I am by the darkness. I get pretty bad seasonal depression during the worst winter months and haven't found a great way to cope yet.

The best way to cope is taking up winter activities that are outside like cross country skiing, but with the way winters are getting milder it's getting harder and harder.

Yah, my partner and I decided to try some winter sports this year. We want to learn snowboarding, but let's see if we actually get to do this in practice.

Hah! Try living in Scotland. Its gets dark before 5pm and stays dark until about 8:45am in the winter. So you never see daylight on weekdays.

If you look at a map of Europe, Toronto's latitude is similar to Milan's. So most of Europe has more darkness in winter than Toronto.

I would argue the darkness in winter in Toronto is pretty average compared to most places in "the West". Its the winters that are nasty, although by Canadian standards not too bad. That tells you a lot of about Canada regarding winter weather.

I no longer live in Toronto - instead im somewhere somewhat equatorial. I actually miss the proper 4 seasons and large variation in daylight from june to december.

Embrace the winter! skating, skiing, hiking, etc... Read more, cook more. etc..

I used to do business in Winnipeg. Those underground tunnels, especially when it is -40C/F outside, surely are nice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_Walkway

I've long lamented that I'll never have grandchildren to tell true stories about walking a mile to kindergarten during Winnipeg winters.

Find other people's grandchildren and tell them! Someone must know!

Winnipeg is always my reference when I describe to people Canadian winters. I've never actually been, and absolutely never will in the winter!

I dont know how people ever settled there.

People do silly things for free arable land

Crossroad of two major rivers and a center of trade by river and by rail.

It's been a major trading hub for over 6000 years, plus the red river valley is extremely fertile

The winters are variable.

Some years they vacillate between -10C and 4C causing ice to melt to water and then refreeze, nature's jackhammer to any surface cracks in the asphalt road resulting in a city budget line item for "springtime pothole fixing".

Once in awhile, the temps will drop to below -20C for several days/weeks. Not as bad as midwest USA/Canadian prairies winters requiring a heater for your car engine block, but going outside is laborious and painful for long periods.

I only said it was mild compared to elsewhere in Canada, not that they were mild.

Many northern cities have the same thing, but it is above the streets not underground. Minneapolis has 15km of skyway (but note that the city mostly uses street level buses so this system isn't the direct connection to transit - it does have direct connections to parking garages though)

Have you been to Toronto? my experience is that it is not cold nor snowy.

Honestly I have no idea what people get out of trolling like this

are you talking about me?

I lived there, I took the path in the summer because it's super hot and humid in the summer. The winters were mild and not snowy at all.

Uh Toronto has had very mixed winters.

I live in northern Michigan. 25 F / -4 C is of course "cold", but it's not particularly problematic, you can under dress and it will be a fairly long time before you have problems. Down around 10 F / -12 C, you have to be a lot more aware.

And then if the regional/municipal governments have the equipment for it, a foot or two of snow a month really doesn't impact travel all that much (maybe for a few hours if there is a big storm).

I lived downtown by the path. I'd be surprised if there was a foot of snow total in the years that I lived there.

ok. The comment was about Toronto in general rather than just downtown.

Snowfall near the lake can be lower because of the mediated temperature. (Unlike south of the lake like in Buffalo were you can get high lake-effect snow). In a dense core, you can have very different patterns of accumulation due to road and building layout.

Winters can be sporadic. Last year's was bad. Year before was light.

This is last year: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/his...

What years were you there? I don't see how less than 'foot of snow total' is possible.

edit: These are the yearly totals (if the site's stats are to be believed). https://toronto.weatherstats.ca/charts/snow-yearly.html

Eyeball average puts it at like 100cm+

I lived in Toronto for several years. Certainly there are much colder places and I personally don't find Toronto winters terribly unpleasant, but I know a lot of people don't share the sentiment.

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