On a normal day, John Long catches the CityLink Navy line with ease. It’s affordable, he said, and usually timely.

Thursday wasn’t normal, though. Nearly a week after snowfall, sleet and freezing rain battered the city, chunks of ice crowded his bus stop at Eastern and South Linwood avenues.

The ice pushed Long, a Canton resident heading to Pigtown, to wait for the bus at the edge of the street. Bundled beneath a green coat, black balaclava and thick gloves and holding on to his cobalt blue bike, Long waited in the street, careful not to be struck by oncoming traffic but meticulously watching so he wouldn’t miss his ride.

“It would be nice sitting on that bench right now and having my bike sitting beside it,” Long said, “but I can’t.”

Scores of bus stops remain blocked off by ice as Baltimore struggles to emerge from snow, ice and arctic temperatures. At some, someone dug out a small path between sidewalk and roadway for riders. Many of the curb ramps leading into crosswalks and sidewalks remain only moderately passable.

In case Baltimore needed another reminder of the transportation pecking order around this town (cars rule, pedestrians and transit riders drool), Winter Storm Fern has entered the chat. And bus riders are salty — much like the roads and sidewalks.

“I think it just highlights a bigger issue of a lack of concern for transportation, for transit riders, for low-income people in general,” said Khaliq Greathouse, whose slice-of-life videos about Baltimore’s charms have developed a strong social media following. “It just shows the car culture in Baltimore.”

But this week he’s using his platform to showcase how difficult — dangerous, even — the conditions are for public transit riders and urging leaders to do more.

“I’ve seen a lot of people that are trying to traverse the transit system, a lot of people are elderly, disabled ... and it’s just been really hard for them,” he said.

This week, on a trip on the LocalLink 21, Greathouse saw a wheelchair user waiting for the bus not be able to board because the mechanical ramp couldn’t extend across the ice mound to reach them.

Car owners certainly have their own struggles, such as digging out of the snow and losing access to parking, that are their own responsibility. But should transit users be expected to carry shovels and salt with them and kill time waiting for the bus by clearing ice?

Thursday was Jocelyn Knight’s first day riding the bus since Sunday’s storm. She needed the CityLink Orange at East Fayette Street and North Linwood Avenue to head to the store, but it took so long she briefly hopped on the Blue line to warm up.

She couldn’t help but notice the icy mounds at different stops and how difficult the mess made getting around.

“It’s terrible. Some gotta get up on it, go in the street,” Knight said of the icy banks of snow. “And you don’t really want to go in the street because you got the cars.”

Baltimore isn’t alone here. Plenty of other urban areas, including Washington, are struggling to clear transit and pedestrian infrastructure of the ice and slush. It’s the city transportation department’s responsibility to plow the streets and keep bus stops clear.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck effort,” wrote Jack French, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, in an email.

The city is working with volunteers and partner organizations to remove snow and ice from pedestrian areas, French said, having closed more than 5,500 of the 7,090 requests to 311 it’s received.

“We are not only asking residents to clear their own sidewalks, but also to look out for their neighbors — especially those who may not be able to shovel on their own," wrote French, urging residents to call 311 with service requests.

Despite the responsibility for bus stops falling to the city, the Maryland Transit Administration is helping by assigning crews to clear snow from shelters and stops. It’s prioritizing ones used by Baltimore students and multiple routes, and in and around hospitals.

“Keeping transit accessible, especially during snowstorms, is essential as many riders rely on buses to reach work, school, medical appointments and other critical destinations,” MTA spokesperson Veronica Battisti wrote in an email. “The safety of our riders and operators is the highest priority.”

In a social media post Wednesday night, Mayor Brandon Scott said, “We’re still out working. We’re not going to stop until we get through the city,” as beeping bulldozers moved mounds of snow behind him.

The packed-in snow and ice require specialized equipment to clear certain areas, the Democratic mayor said, and teams are working around the clock.

Residents and businesses are responsible for the sidewalks and alleys in and around their properties. But along many major thoroughfares, from York Road to downtown and beyond, responsibility is a gray area, leaving pedestrians in the street and bus riders climbing over plowed-up snowbanks to get to their rides.

“If roads reopen but sidewalks, curb ramps, bus stops, and pedestrian routes remain blocked or constricted, transportation and community access are ‘open’ in name only for people with disabilities,” wrote Gabriel Rubinstein, managing attorney for Disability Rights Maryland, in a statement.

“In situations like these, we routinely hear that people miss medical appointments, cannot get to work, or are forced to remain at home days after a storm,” he wrote, urging city and state leaders to do more. “In these conditions, accessibility barriers are not just inconvenient; they are dangerous and exclusionary.”

Beyond making stops inaccessible, the winter storm impacted overall MTA transit service. The light rail, MARC train and subway have gone through bouts of delays and closures, and buses have been canceled as MTA drivers get stuck at home.

Dedicated bus lanes like those on Pratt Street have been buried under ice. Buses are moving slower, making arrival estimates less reliable and leaving riders waiting longer in the bitter cold.

Some riders are “really, really struggling,” said Adrianne Black, a Mount Vernon resident and daily transit user. Her partner, who uses a cane, has stayed home, she said.

Though winter storms often hinder transit, they also present an interesting opportunity, according to active transportation advocates.

They show where asphalt is necessary and where space could be transformed into a bus lane or an area for pedestrians, Black said. Snowbanks at intersections mirror the bump-outs created in some areas by plastic flex posts or create narrower driving lanes.

Call it Complete Streets, au naturel.

“Anything that does not have tire marks at this point is clearly not essential pavement,” Black said.

This article was updated with a statement from Disability Rights Maryland.