This is common practice on side streets that are not major arteries, if these streets are even plowed. Many communities don’t have the budget or equipment to plow all the residential streets.
I have plenty of driveway and garage room to park. The other day I was clearing out part of the street area in front of my home in order to place the garbage bins there (and to make it easier for the bin collectors).
While doing this, I mused that if someone were to park in the area I cleared, I would be irritated, but a the same time I recognized that anyone who wanted to park there could do so.
mmm
We put our garbage bins at the end of our driveway when there’s this much snow.
My small town implemented the use of trash bins for pick up a couple years ago.
Initially I used to schlep it from my front porch to the street curb directly behind my parked car.
Since October of this year I decided to just leave it out there all the time.
When my shovel crew comes they dust off the lid for me.
In the Prairies, it is very rare to get 2 feet of snow (say) at one time. So you get a few inches of snow and people drive through it until it gets packed down (sometimes forming ruts). At least, that’s my memory of living in Saskatoon.
The other reason I clear the street, on either side of the driveway, is to prevent the inevitable massive driveway-blocking snowpile when the street gets plowed.
mmm
IIRC, Chicago recently proposed or enacted a law eliminating the need for new construction to provide a certain amount of parking. I believe the argument was that should parking get bad enough, “the market” would develop creative ways to provide parking. (No, I did not find that argument persuasive.)
Kenobi - your town has snow parking restrictions. I never understood how those work. The signs say something like “No parking if 2” of snow.” But does that mean only as the snow is falling and for some short time after? Because I park and see people parked all along those streets no matter how much snow is on the ground. And where are the people supposed to park when the snow is falling and the streets are being cleared? Are those restrictions enforced?
Not only does the CIty of Toronto plow all its streets shortly after a snowstorm, but residential streets are plowed by Caterpillar graders that are customized with a secondary plow at the back to clear the berms at the ends of driveways. The secondary plow is kept raised but comes down as the rear of the grader passes the driveway, clearing away the big pile of snow.
Back when I lived in the city and was doing my own driveway clearing I found this extremely helpful and was very grateful for it. This unique innovation was introduced by a former mayor of North York, Mel Lastman. It was so popular that after North York was amalgamated into Toronto proper, I believe it was implemented throughout the city.
My current municipality plows the streets with dump trucks and doesn’t do this, but now that I’m old and wretched I have a driveway plowing service so I don’t care.
WIthin the cities in my experience, it’s mostly Montreal that regularly removes the snowbanks, because they get so much snow. I posted a couple of videos in the snow thread – it’s a very impressive operation, involving an enormously loud and powerful snowblower powered by what is essentially a locomotive engine, and a convoy of trucks following it to pick up the snow. This will happen many times in a typical winter even on minor residential streets.
Other cities don’t do this nearly to the same extent, if it all. Toronto only removes snowbanks from major arteries, and only occasionally when necessary. They’re equipped differently because there’s a lot less snow.
We’ve just had a serious (for us) snow and ice storm. At least in my area, the opposite happens. Residents have plenty of experience with Cletus and his low IQ, high BAC driving habits. Since the biggest threat is the unguided F150, there’s not single car parked on the street. They’ve all been moved to yards, driveways, around back – anywhere but out where it will be hit. Sadly, mailboxes aren’t as easily relocated, but we get skilled at reinstalling them after a while.
Serious question for all the snow-skilled folks. Where do you park your car while clearing your spot? I’m trying to imagine returning home from work to a street with snowbanks, and the logistics of clearing somewhere to park.
My town doesn’t allow cars to park on the streets during “snow emergencies”, which is any time the plows are active. But it also doesn’t allow overnight parking, so every car that lives here has a place to be that isn’t on the street.
This is why I do extra clearing on the left side of the street (facing out).
On the other side of street, obviously! (No, there’s no room over there)
Evanston, IL, like many places in Chicagoland I think, uses their air raid siren to notify everybody of snow emergencies. A friend in college opined that in the event of nuclear war, everybody in Chicago would go out and move their car to the other side of the street.
In 2015, the year of endless snow in Boston, they either bought or borrowed some of that equipement and trucked away the snowbanks. In all my years around here I’d never seen that done in neighborhoods in Somerville (a densely populated suburb of Boston) but in one day it turned our impossible to park streets to easy peasy parking.
I was mistaken, I posted a couple of videos in this very thread right here. This one is my favourite.
I’m glad somebody noticed. 
Hmm. Grew up on NW side of Chicago, and have lived in the western burbs for 35-40 years - never heard of such a thing. Either a “snow emergency" or blowing the sirens for snow.
I admit I am out of touch with practices in Chicago, or other places that people regularly parked on the streets overnight. In a location where both sides of the streets are regularly pretty filled with parked cars all night, where exactly do people move their cars to to allow plows to work. If both sides are filled, everyone can’t move to “the other side.” I assume there is a simple solution that I’m just not seeing.
Well, here in Boston the expiration time for space savers was last night at 8pm, and when I left this morning, all the empty spaces were clear of savers. No drama. At least in my neighborhood.
You scramble. A lot of people with driveways don’t always fill them up with cars, but during a snow emergency they do. Neighbors allow neighbors to park in any extra space they have. I’ve parked in paid parking garages during a snow emergency, and our town used to open school parking lots during them. There’s no simple solution - it’s an emergency.
And typically they tow cars so they can plow, so it’s a double whammy paying the tow fee and the tickets.
I’d be interested in hearing from folk in Chicago or the close-in burbs like Berwyn. In many areas of Chicago and burbs such as Berwyn, there are no driveways. Most buildings have a single 2-car garage in back off an alley, but that is insufficient for all parking, especially if people own multiple cars, or for 2 or 3 flats or apartment buildings. I thought of using school and other lots, but those would need to be cleared as well, no? I wonder how far people in some locations would need to travel - and get home from - to find a paid garage.
Yeah - that is an interesting turn of phrase. I’m not saying things were better back in the day. But we simply considered it snow, not an “emergency”! 
I apologize if I missed it - where are you from? No judgment, just curious. IME, for the most part, Chicago’s snow is considerably less than folk elsewhere are posting about.
A quick Google did not readily show how often in an average year we get >6” in a single storm, but this site suggests that over the past 15 years, in 4 years, the heaviest snow was 6” or less, and in only 3 years did we get a single snow >10”.
So those are the conditions in which people are calling “dibs” in and around Chicago. Sure, it sucks if a big storm comes along right are rush hour or something. But if it comes on a weekend or over night, it is just something you deal with and then go on with your life.
I’m certain things might be quite different in large cities like Buffalo, where much deeper snows are more common.
Greater Boston area all my life. Snow emergencies are nothing new, we’ve had them for decades on a city by city basis. The Blizzard of 1978 was the first state-wide snow emergency that I’m aware of.