# I cleared this spot, it's MINE! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096 "2026-01-27T17:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/41 "2026-01-28T00:45:24Z")
Here’s one a bit more reminiscent of my childhood, except on our street they cleared everything down to the curb and any cars parked on that side of the street were towed. Snowblower fun starts at around 5:00 minutes in the video. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/TjzPWxF7D1Y/maxresdefault.jpg "Montreal’s Snow Clearing — With a Classic Old Machine") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjzPWxF7D1Y) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/42 "2026-01-28T00:54:38Z")
Montreal stopped river dumping in the 80s I think. They now use certain collector locations throughout the city that has the snow melt routed to processing via the sewer system. There’s a Wikipedia article about it: [Snow removal in Montreal - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_removal_in_Montreal) 300 000 trucks, 10 000 km of city streets, 3000 workers employed during the winter, 3% of the city budget, for about $170 million. I’m always going to be impressed by it. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/43 "2026-01-28T00:55:47Z")
Truckloads, surely, not trucks? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/44 "2026-01-28T01:01:53Z")
Yes, truckloads, sorry. Apparently it’s about 2500 vehicles of all types. In addition to the awesome Snow blowers, we have the sneaky sidewalk plows which are most effective at .75 the speed of light so if you hear them coming, jump aside quick! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/45 "2026-01-28T01:25:08Z")
I’ve already carved out ownership of the street with my neighbors. If I spent hrs shoveling it out and somebody down the street used it then I would shovel the recently created mound of snow away from my new space. It’s got to go somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/46 "2026-01-28T03:37:10Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > In 2015 we had on street parking and it was the snowiest month on record. We had a snow emergency for most of the month, so we only had parking on one side of the street. The parking spots were carved out of the rock hard snowbanks so it was tough to create new ones. Where there were double spots people would park in the middle to save a spot for their spouse, and move forward when they arrived. Some of those people had their cars vandalized, especially if they hadn’t shoveled out the spots in the first place. The year of the famous Boston snow pile! It finally melted on July 14th. > **[Boston's Giant Snow Pile Is Finally Gone](https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/14/boston-giant-snow-pile-gone)** > > A snow pile in a Seaport District parking lot, where the city dumped some of the winter’s record-breaking snowfall, has finally melted. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/47 "2026-01-28T12:35:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve lived in Chicago about 40 of the 50 years of my life, and I absolutely detest the dibs system. Born and raised in Chicago in a house without a garage. I heartily agree with the entirety of this post. Also, back then in the 60s-70s, they didn’t even plow the side streets. You just jumped away from the curb, into a pair of ruts… ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/48 "2026-01-28T13:28:26Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > 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. Not snow-related as I’m in Middle England where we just don’t get those problems….my street has double-yellows on one side and a free-for-all on parking spaces on my side of the street. My neighbour (who has about six cars, and room to park all of them off-street in his driveway and yard) often puts traffic cones or his bins on the street to save spaces. The other neighbours just shove the obstacles out of the way and park there anyway. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/49 "2026-01-28T13:43:25Z")
> [@scareyfaerie](#): > > ….my street has double-yellows What’s “double yellows”? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/50 "2026-01-28T13:43:53Z")
That’s beautiful, it’s like watching trucks dance together. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/51 "2026-01-28T13:44:32Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > What’s “double yellows”? No parking at any time, as opposed to single yellows which is restricted parking. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/52 "2026-01-28T15:29:07Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > > [@Ellecram](#): > > > > It is not likely that someone will take my spot as I live in a quieter neighborhood in a small town but if it happens I will be in fighting mode. > > Agree with this if you arranged and paid for the service. But, what if you leave and someone nabs your spot - what do you do at that moment? Do you park in someone else’s cleared-out spot (not knowing if _they_ paid for the service)? Sit there and honk your horn until someone comes out? Start hitting the parked car with a crowbar until the owner appears?… I suppose it all depends on whether you think you are man enough to go kick some stranger’s ass, hope they are not a lunatic armed with a weapon of some sort, and are confident that that local law enforcement will decide to not prosecute you for assault or property damage. Otherwise I would imagine you do what most people do in such circumstances. Yell and posture for awhile so you think you look like tough guys until one or both parties realize they are out of shape grown-ass men who probably don’t want to explain to people at work or their son’s baseball practice the next day why their face is fucked up and /or go inside and stew for a few hours. As someone who lived in Boston for awhile, I tend to respect the informal “chair/cone rule”. Plus a lot of those sort of neighborhoods are “resident only” parking so if one of your neighbors shovels out a spot and you take it, you are kind of being a bit of a dick IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/53 "2026-01-28T15:51:10Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > I’ve never lived somewhere where “dibs” was a thing for a shoveled out spot. Once you leave, you leave. What if you’re trying to park your vehicle in the first place? “Dibs” has to exist to certain extent. Otherwise you get a situation where you might shovel out a spot for 45 minutes, then go get your car from where it is temporarily parked while you shovel (like in front of someone’s driveway), only to find someone has taken the spot you just finished shoveling out. In this situation, I would be really ticked off, especially if the person refused to move. To avoid it, if I lived in an area where this was an issue, I would keep a couple of orange traffic cones in my vehicle to hold my spot while I retrieved my vehicle, or get someone to guard it. But I agree that once you leave, the spot is fair game for anyone. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/54 "2026-01-28T15:57:55Z")
Also long time Chicago area boy. Albeit only seven years in the city itself. Wasn’t a thing in that neighborhood. But honestly when my car was parked on the street during a major storm there wasn’t much of the space itself to shovel out? It was getting the snow off my car and clearing a bit in front of and behind the car, and the wall of snow the plow pushed against it. I assumed someone else would park there soon after I pulled out. Owning a house I tried to shovel the plow drift (or ahead of the plow so it didn’t push a drift blocking the driveway) in front of my house as my responsibility but I parked in my driveway. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/55 "2026-01-28T16:40:26Z")
I’ve lived my whole life in coastal Southern California and have only seen heavy snow a few times in my life but this is the kind of thing that would drive me apeshit. I’m fine with following whatever the local convention is but there are always people who think the local convention is bullshit or constantly nitpick their way into their advantage or never do their fair share of the work. Nothing but respect for all of the work it is to deal with that and everything else with that weather. It’s easy mode out here. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/56 "2026-01-28T16:57:07Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It’s easy mode out here. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone - remember, we are having an exodus! /s [It’s going to be seasonably 60F, clear, light breeze and sunny here today in Sacto - people are out in sweaters, golfing, riding bikes, jogging 😆] I get mildly annoyed when an unknown car parks in front of my house, but the clearing snow thing and parking would definitely take things to the next level. We can barely drive when it rains out here. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/57 "2026-01-28T16:59:11Z")
We don’t even need air conditioning in Santa Barbara ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/58 "2026-01-28T17:12:28Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Plus a lot of those sort of neighborhoods are “resident only” parking so if one of your neighbors shovels out a spot and you take it, you are kind of being a bit of a dick IMHO. Have you ever dated? Didn’t you go to their house or have them come over? I didn’t have a spot in her neighborhood to dig out in the first place so the only place to park is where someone else dug out. Same for any type of home repair contractor; they gotta park somewhere when they come to fix/install {whatever}. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/59 "2026-01-28T17:16:46Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Have you ever dated? Didn’t you go to their house or have them come over? No. That’s gross. I just have sex with them in the bathroom of a dive bar like a normal person. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096/60 "2026-01-28T17:42:22Z")
Soo much easier to park at the bar too; their lot has probably been plowed already! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cleared-this-spot-its-mine/1027096.md?page=4)