I’ve never really given it a second thought. But I’ve seen some FB posts that say I am a grade-A jerk for blowing grass clippings into the street when I am cutting the grass. They say a motorcycle will slip-n-slide on the clippings, causing the rider to wipe out. They even say it’s illegal in some municipalities.
So should I be more conscientious about this?
I hope not, because I’ve done it sometimes. I feel guilty, but not because I’m going to cause some annoying motorcyclist to fall down, but because I’m passing my work onto someone else, namely, the street sweepers. It feels lazy.
I’d say it was A+ jerkish behavior. At least I hope it is since I spent an hour today blowing clippings from the road onto my yard (corner lot plus driveway, sidewalk, and patios).
In addition to being just unsightly, leaving(and especially adding more) clippings in the road adds to debris that clogs storm drains. They can also end up in front of a neighbor’s house, making it look like they’re the lazy one 
The people that I see doing this are yard maintenance crews - never seen a homeowner do that
If you do it on my street, the 6’5" psycho from 7523 will be over to let you know not to do it again.
This. It’s a lazy, jerk thing to do.
In my 'hood they come around with giant vacuums attached to trucks to suck up all the leaves in the street alongside the curb.
I don’t end up with a lot of clippings, but the ones I do usually get blown in to the street. After a few cars pass, they are distributed along the curbsides where they will get sucked up along with the leaves.
I don’t think I’m being jerkish. If I did, I would stop.
(and it if was a considerable amount of clippings I would not do this)
mmm
You also declaw your cats don’t you…
I live in the boonies - there are no curbs. When I ride my mower down the side by the street, I try to stay close to the fence when the blower is aimed at the road, then when I cut along the road, the clippings blow towards the fence. The swath is about 10-12’ wide, so it takes maybe 5 passes to get it all - some blows in the street, some doesn’t. Leaves that blow off the trees fall in the street. People drop trash in the street. My clippings dry up and blow away regardless of where they fall initially. I’ll stop the mower when a car or a pedestrian passes by so they don’t get hit by the mower discharge, but other than that, it’s not something I think about.
Blowing a small amount of grass into the street is completely harmless, IMO. Spraying it onto parked cars is jerky, though.
It is illegal in our small town. I am not sure of the reason - perhaps it impacts the lake (the storm drains drain to the lake). It is also possible that it clogs the storm drains or sewers. In any case, the prohibition was highlighted in a recent letter sent to us all with our water bills.
To be clear, are we talking when you mow your grass, the clippings go everywhere, including some small amount into the street? Or are you intentionally blowing clippings from your yard into the street for some reason?
I live on a rural, dead-end street. I suspect the only motorcycle that has been down the street in the past year is my own. There is no curb or gutters (ditches down the side). The pavement is simple tar over rock chips, so I doubt I’d have any trouble on the motorcycle. There is one guy on the street who only mows about once a month and blows grass nearly halfway across the street. It looks trashy, IMO. I will cut the first two passes (48" mower deck) blowing the grass toward the property before I blow it towards the street. I won’t say that no grass makes it to the street, but it isn’t much when it happens. Most of my neighbors use a similar process, or just bag.
When I paid a guy to mow, he managed to cut it without getting it in the street. It really isn’t a hard thing to do.
As a teenager, I made spending money by mowing lawns. I would always clean up the street and customer’s driveway afterwards.
So, no you aren’t a jerk for blowing grass clippings in the street. Not cleaning up after yourself, however, makes a statement by itself.
Are you on the tall side, and do you live somewhere between 7521 and 7525?
The former; when I cut the grass where the grass meets the street, the clippings are blown into the street.
I should also add that we live in a very rural area. There are no sidewalks or curbs, and we do not have street cleaners. None-the-less, the consensus seems to be that it is jerkish behavior, so I’ll run the mower the other way to keep most of the clippings in the yard.
I don’t get blowing stuff into the street. I … just … don’t … get … it.
What do you think happens to YOUR garbage? The magic garbage fairy is going to blink it away?
Your garbage, your responsibility.
It’s kindergarten level. Clean up after yourself.
If you’re over 5 yours old you don’t blow crap into the street.
There’s a big difference between taking a leaf blower and bowing the debris from your yard into the street, which the OP said he did not do, and mowing the yard and some clippings land in the street from when you’re mowing near the edge, which the OP said he did do. If you actually have this much vitriol towards people who do what the OP did…that’s like 99% of the country
I don’t mind people throwing their grass clippings toward the street.
What I worry about is riding by on my motorcycle when the mower’s chute is aimed my way.
No, I was referring to my gigantic thug neighbor who will actually stand on his front porch to watch neighbors doing their yard work to make sure no grass clippings go into the street.
When he first bought his house, he had every tree on the property cut down (this is a semi-rural lakeside community known for its trees). In autumn, he’s constantly enraged because other people’s leaves blow onto his immaculate lawn.
A mulching mower eliminates this concern while feeding your lawn.
Using a leaf blower for any purpose whatsoever would be a hanging offense in my Empire. They’re noisesome devices that vandalize our peace and quiet to zero offsetting benefit. They merely move stuff from one person’s area of responsibility to somebody else’s. Typically without that somebody’s knowledge or approval.
As clarified in his second post the OP’s situation sounds mostly like overaggressive neighbors, not unreasonable OP behavior. Modulo just how big an industrial mower is spraying how wide a swatch of lawn clippings into the street over how much frontage. But kudos nonetheless for the OP’s willingness to change habits to keep more of his mess on his property.