Snow Removal Etiquette

This winter has left me baffled by the lack of snow removal etiquette displayed by my neighbors. Is it just me, or have things gotten worse this year? In the past, we have had large amounts of snow, without any issues with snow removal etiquette. I don't understand why it is an issue all of a sudden. True, some of the neighbors are new to the neighborhood. But some have been here for several years. This is what I have seen.

One of my neighbors, last year, used to shovel the snow out of his yard and into the middle of the road. This meant that those of us who live above him have to drive through that mess until the next time the plow comes by to clean up the snowbanks, which is usually a few days after the storm. Thankfully, he has stopped doing this. Now, he has a plow on the front of his ATV and plows the snow mostly onto the sides of his driveway, and actually cleans up the snow that gets into the road. Of course, he sometimes pushes that snow onto the lawn of his neighbor across the street, but this is an improvement over past behavior.

I watched this morning as another neighbor carried shovelful after shovelful of snow and dumped it across the road onto another neighbors front lawn while she was at work. How neighborly of him.

I am currently watching my neighbor across the road as he uses his new snow blower to blow the snow into the middle of the road. At first I thought it was just laziness, not wanting to readjust the direction of the blower. But then I saw him readjust the blower to purposely blow the snow into the road.

People, there are (or should be) some rules for proper snow removal etiquette.

1. Snow that gets removed from your driveway should never find its way to somebody else's property.

2. Just because a neighbor's yard is full of snow does not mean it is a dumping ground for more snow.

3. The road is not the proper disposal place for snow. There is a reason that snow plows spend so much time during snowstorms removing the snow from said roads. It is particularly improper to add more snow to the before-mentioned roads AFTER the plows have finished their snow removal.

4. Dump snow into other's yards as you would have others dump snow into yours.

Believe me, I know that we are all running out of places to put our (damn) snow. My snowbanks beside the driveway are all over six feet in height. But I sure don't want more snow from my neighbors.

Spring is around the corner. Ah, mud-season.