Easy, after a storm EACH person who has or uses a car has to shovel out two spaces. One residential one and one commercial one. Then its all clear for everyone and everyone has done their share.
But, like the OP observes, you KNOW there are jerks who are FAR from carrying their share of the weight, if any at all for that matter.
My major, MAJOR problem with heavy snowfall and digging your car out is that I have nowhere to put the snow! I got out to my car today and there was a thigh-high wall of compacted snow on the street side. I dug that out enough to be able to pull back and out tomorrow morning, but there’s still about a four-foot long wall on the street side of my car (minus the clearance to get the door open and get in). And that wall is still there because to actually get it out of the way would require me to build barricades in the street, and I’m not quite ready for a revolution. But that wall is going to make parking in that spot difficult…I’ve tried to shovel drive space in front and back, but they’re not THAT wide of a clearance.
Of course, as I said, my main worry is that the plow will go through before I go to work and wall me in all the way along again.
I want a flamethrower for Christmas…
I’m not talking about using a space in a parking lot that someone else shoveled out when I go to a store, the doctor ,the library or work. The space I use when I go to those places was probably shoveled out by someone who lives on that block. I live in a city not a suburb. There are apartments over the stores, over the dentist’s office, across the street from my job, etc.
How? If they are parked in the space the OP shoveled when he returns, then they must have shoveled themselves out of some other space. Unless they were crazy enough to drive there from someplace that didn’t get snow.
doreen, I think you were whooshed there.
Just to add a little hope to the conversation: when I came out this morning my neighbors had cleared my sidewalk and driveway for me. I guess the word got out about the single Mom with the slipped disc.
There are good people out there.
You are assuming several things.
That every parking space was occupied by a car before the storm hit. That every car in the city was in a parking space influenced by snow before the snow hit. And of those cars that left a snowed in place, it was a public spot freely available for anyone to park in.
Here in Seattle it’s 50F and raining. 
Fuck that shit. You buy the house, not the street. That street is public property, not your own little fiefdom. Our society subsidizes car parking enough as it is without handing over great swaths of the nation’s roads to private property owners for their own personal use.
And this is when a city needs to enact and enforce residential parking districts that give priority to residents, and that also limit the number of residential parking permits each household is allowed to have. Three should be the absolute upper limit, and two would be even better.
As for the snow thing, and shoveling out parking spaces, i understand the frustration of the OP, and i know that it’s a pain in the ass to spend half an hour getting your car out, only to come back after a quick trip to the store to find your parking space gone. But that’s how it goes. You shoveled your car out for your own convenience, because you wanted to go somewhere. If you didn’t need to go somewhere, you wouldn’t have shoveled it out in the first place. The fact that you need to leave doesn’t automatically entitle you to claim a swath of public property for your own personal use.
Also, exactly how long, in your mind, should someone leave that empty space just for you? A ten-minute run for milk and bread? What about a two-hour trip to the mall? Or maybe an all-day stint at work? How long should you be allowed to leave a public parking spot empty before someone else can make use of it?
Because i’ve seen some shovelers who are selfish enough to expect that their space will remain reserved for days on end, even after the snow problem is over. I’ve seen people who still have chairs or plastic cones or garbage bins saving “their” parking spots well after most of the snow has melted.
Assholes comes in many different forms.
So let me see if I’ve got this straight- since I shoveled my car out I can park in a space someone else shoveled, because I’ve done my share. But if my neighbor leaves her garage (after shoveling her driveway), she should double park her car and block traffic while she shovels out a space, so as not to take up a space that someone else shoveled. And the person who shoveled the space I use is entitled to just assume that I am a jerk.
Just put a sign up that says, “If you didn’t dig this space out, and you park here, then every panel on your vehicle gets keyed.”
There are parts of Boston–not really bad parts either–where people will slash your tires for moving the Holy Lawn Chair or the Great Trash Can, and everyone else will say you had it coming.
That makes it hard to get your car out of that spot.
There are houses that don’t have driveways? I know parking could be a problem when I was little and we lived in apartments, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house without a driveway.
I have a fake fire hydrant I keep in the back of my van…
From a fair share of work perspective yes. Obviously she can’t sit there and block traffic, but she IS taking advantage of someone elses work. And THATS what the OP’s complaint is really about IMO. Is anybody allowed to park in her driveway? And for that matter, if she lives on the outskirts of town but is parking in town, who would want to park in her driveway in the first place for that matter even if they could? I am assuming anybody is allowed to park in your shoveled out spot (and thats its a spot somebody else would want to park in in the first place).
Its kinda like playing musical chairs, except that rather a chair being taken away, somebody from outside “the system” is being “dropped in”. Somebody is going to get screwed, and it isnt the person being dropped in.
I deleted your last sentence cause I couldnt make sense of it.
Rowhouses, as runner pat linked to, and some newer townhouse communities don’t have driveways.
The neighborhood I used to live in, all single-family houses on about 1/3 acre, wasn’t built with driveways. Most people have added them over the years, but there are still a good number of people who have to park in the street.
I have never lived somewhere where cars get snowed in, so please help fight my iggnerance.
Obviously, in the OP’s universe, the rule is: “If you can park there, don’t.” I wonder if he’ll explain what he does when he goes into a different neighborhood and needs to park? He probably digs out a stranger’s car, then waits patiently for them to come and drive it away. Then he parks in the spot. And when he returns, the stranger will pay it forward. What’s not to understand? Easy peasy.
No, nobody else can park in her driveway. But the OPs complaint is not really about a fair share of work. He most likely doesn’t have any idea if the person who parked in the space had previously shoveled out a different public space- but he considers that person an !@#hole without having that information. He’s annoyed that the spot he shoveled out wasn’t available when he returned- and he almost certainly proceeded to park in a spot that some other person had shoveled out. He may try not to, but I don’t think he drives around until “his” spot opens up.
People drop in, and people also drop out. I like to park close to my house as much as anyone else does, but the fact is the streets are public. I don’t own the space in front of my house or the space I shoveled out. I’d probably get annoyed if a neighbor with a driveway or a garage took up a space on the street during a snowstorm- but that would be my complaint. Not that someone took the space I shoveled, but that someone with no need took up a space on the street.
