The recent snows have re-ignited the annual debate in our fair city about shoveling out the parking spot in front of one’s house and then proclaiming a perpetual “this spot is mine,” even to the point of putting down traffic cones, lawn chairs or other obstacles to keep other drivers from parking in it.
The arguments come down to two intractable points of view.
1. It’s in front of (or at least adjacent to) my house; I cleared it out; it’s mine.
2. You don’t own the street. As soon as you pulled your vehicle out, the spot was open.
This is an especially sore spot in the Northeast and Upper Midwest where there are likely to be several heavy snows in the winter. The official municipal position is that public streets are open to the public, unless a spot has been officially designated as a permit spot. But of course, there’s official, and then there’s real life.
“Dibs” is a longstanding, if informal, concept in Chicago. The police generally tolerate it, at least in the immediate aftermath of a big snow.
I don’t live in the city, and I don’t generally need to defend a dug-out parking spot myself, but I respect the concept behind it…again, at least immediately after a snowfall.
I’ve dealt with this. My city (Chicago) has dealt with this.
I get you (general “you”) went to considerable effort to dig out a spot to park in (I’ve done it…I get it). But it cannot be a perpetual “I get to park here forever” license. I think you get a couple days. After that, it’s open territory for anyone.
Of course, enforcing this is not easy. And in Chicago they let it slide for some days. But in the end, not your spot.
This is the only logical conclusion. If you don’t own the street, you don’t own the space. If you want to put a chair in the space, the only logical interpretation is “hey, free chair!”
I live in the UK where it never gets that cold for what it’s worth, but still can’t see it any other way.
There was a video I remember seeing last year by (I think) MODOT saying you should clear the snow from about a ten foot length of curb to the left of your driveway (as you face the street) so that when plow trucks come by, the snow will get piled into that empty space instead of at the end of your driveway. I thought it was a brilliant idea so the next time it snowed, I tried it.
My neighbor parked in the spot I had cleared out. It was basically a stretch of curb between our two driveways, barely enough room to park a car, but they decided it was big enough and also must have thought it was sooo generous of me to clear a spot for them.
Look dammit, if I do the work to clear a spot on the street, that’s my spot. You want a spot? Grab a shovel and clear your own. (There’s plenty of street parking available in our neighborhood, not to mention double-wide driveways. It’s not like parking is at a premium around here.)
For people that live in these areas, I’m curious, what does someone do if there is no cleared out space to park? Do they have to park in the middle of the street and spend an hour digging out a space? Sounds impractical if they have to block the road for that long.
It used to be more neighborhood by neighborhood, and entirely “unwritten” rules. Since the City has promulgated the rules you posted, it is the same policy city-wide and there is much more clarity. In my neighborhood, most everyone removes their saver after 48 hours. If not, someone will remove it for them.
FWIW, I live in a suburb of a big city (Chicago), in a neighborhood in which pretty much every house has a garage. Street parking by residents is still very common here, for a couple of reasons:
It’s an older neighborhood (most of the houses were built in the 1920s to 1950s), and the garages (which are nearly always detached and behind the house, opening into an alley) are on the smaller side: one or two cars.
A lot of my neighbors use their garages to store things like boats, campers, sports equipment, etc., leaving no room for actual cars.
Because the garages open out to the alley, their “driveways” are extremely short (typically about 10 feet), making it difficult-to-impossible to park your car in your driveway.
Many families appear to have more cars than garage spaces; that’s our situation (three vehicles, two-car garage).
So, still lots of cars using street parking, despite garages.