- After snowstorms, Bostonians spend hours digging out their cars on public streets.
- Residents "save" parking spaces for days afterward, as neighbors comply with this cultural phenomenon.
- "Space savers" can be beach chairs, furniture, garbage bins or any other random object.
If you spent hours digging your car out from underneath a plowed snow bank, wouldn’t you like to save that parking spot for yourself?
It’s a sentiment shared by many drivers in Boston, who, after a snowstorm, will pile up found objects in that space to make sure no one else takes “their” spot on the street.
Garbage cans, lawn chairs, street cones, ladders, old night tables, bathroom vanities, buckets or any other on-hand items can be found “saving” the parking space for whomever dug out their car.
The tradition of elbowing out a public space for private use — so called “space saving” — has become, in parts of the city, an officially sanctioned behavior. Not entirely unlike how folks save spaces for the annual Pioneer Day parade in downtown Salt Lake City, but this lasts for days in a city already starved for parking spaces.
In Boston, those that do this have 48 hours from when the storm ends to decorate their parking space with space-saving objects. In Cambridge, another city directly adjacent to Boston, residents have no such official sanction, but the move remains heavily practiced.
“Did you use a trash can, cone, or some other object to save your parking space on the street? Here’s what you need to know,” reads Boston’s official information page for parking during a snowstorm.
“You can only use a space saver when the city declares a snow emergency. You have 48 hours to use a space saver after we end an emergency. After that, you must remove it from the street.”
Piling on
This week’s snowstorm dumped feet of snow across the Northeast. It was the second time in a month that the region was hammered with significant snowfall, surprising residents after the storm’s trajectory changed from its initial predictions last Friday.
Photos of New York City were shared widely as 19 inches of snow fell, but parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island were under much more come the end of the storm. Southeast Massachusetts received more than three feet — 41 inches — and Providence, Rhode Island, set records for snowfall with 37.9 inches.
The metro region of Boston, which had not yet fully dug itself out from the last winter storm, received 17 inches. It was still enough to close schools, halt public transportation and implement parking restrictions.
Parking in the greater Boston area is difficult enough without several feet of snow. Despite being urban with decent public transit, it’s still a driving town and when discussing directions, parking is always part of the conversation.
But after blizzards, nor’easters or any other kind of massive winter storm, finding a place for a car only gets trickier. But for those who had a space prior to the storm, they’re often in luck. At least for a few days, that is.
Scenes from the aftermath
Both during and after this week’s blizzard, Cambridge residents spent hours digging out their cars from the consistent sweeps of the city’s snowplows.
Some were out walking, others were even cross-country skiing down the streets as the snow continued to accumulate despite the best efforts of the snowplows.
By the following day, only a small percentage of car owners had yet to dig out their cars from the feet of snow that fell over the preceding 24 hours.
But many of those who had to use their cars had already participated in space saving. If the last storm is any indicator, there’ll be random objects saving spaces across the city for the week to come.
