Help Stop Snowplow Piles From Blocking Your Driveway With This Handy Trick

Tis the season for big snowstorms, and your city's fleet of snowplows is on the move. While those plows keep your neighborhood from drowning in drifts, allowing you to get to work or school on roads cleared of the white stuff, they can also create extra work for you to get out of your driveway. However, there is a handy shoveling trick you can use during snowplowing season to keep a plow's deposit from blocking your exit. You'll need a quality snow shovel and the right timing for this trick to be effective.

Snowplows work by scraping snow off of the street with a large angled blade. That angle sends the snow to the right of the plow, piling it up along the side of the street. If your driveway intersects with the plow route, you can expect that plow to deposit a berm of snow across your driveway entrance from the stuff it scraped up just "upstream" of your house. You can avoid this problem by creating an open area to the left of your driveway to "catch" that snow before it traps you. A helpful video by the City of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities shows exactly how this method works. By shoveling out a 10-foot or so swath to the left of your driveway, you are creating a pocket of space for the oncoming plow to deposit snow here instead of along your driveway entrance. 

Many cities that see a lot of residential snowfall, like Northfield, Massachusetts and Colorado Springs, Colorado, recommend this trick to keep snowplows from blocking your driveway. It is best to shovel out your snow pocket just after a big storm and before you anticipate plows hitting your street. Some jurisdictions have handy online snow plow trackers so you can see when machines are due to hit your street in real-time and plan your shoveling accordingly. It may not always be feasible to create your snow pocket before the plows come. If the timing is right, though, it can save you a lot of effort over digging a passageway through a tall, dirty snow berm for your car.

This method won't work well if there is ongoing heavy snow and the plows just keep coming. It also may not be feasible to shovel out 10 feet to the left of your property if you live in a high density neighborhood or if you don't have a good sense of where your property lines are — your neighbor won't appreciate you creating a space in front of their house for the plow to offload a wall of snow. For a shared driveway, you can always work with your neighbor to carve out your snow pocket. Just make sure to use a good shoveling technique to keep yourself safe during this highly aerobic activity, and skip it all together if you aren't in good health.