Tired Of Cars Getting Packed In By Snow Plowing, Chicago Woman Petitions City For Better Snow Removal Plan
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Shovel, salt, repeat – chances are you're sick of it all by now.
But one Chicago woman is so over watching neighbors having to dig out their cars that she has created a petition to ask the city for a fix.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported, the words "winter wonderland" are not so likely to spring to anyone's mind anymore to describe what we're dealing with this February. More like "parking nightmare."
Just ask the people who live and drive on Chicago streets and keep getting stuck.
"After everyone like pretty much shoveled early in the morning, the snow plow came through and everybody got stuck again," said Tralesser Goss. "Neighbors will come out with shovels and try to shovel them out, or even will help push."
LIVE UPDATES: Heavy Lake-Effect Snow Expected To Continue For Hours; Totals Could Exceed 12 Inches In Spots
Goss had those neighbors in mind when she came up with a petition asking the city of Chicago for a better snow removal plan. The plan would totally clear a street instead of having plows come by and pack snow against cars parked on one or both sides.
The idea involves a short parking ban during specific hours so plows can fully clear the area.
"Clear the entire street - middle to sides," Goss said. "That way, street parking - as well as people that are just driving through - can have space."
A Chicago native, Goss said she looked across the country for cities doing it right – and preventing cars getting trapped.
"There's always a solution," she said.
She found Portland, Maine and Minneapolis, Minnesota both have snow plans, like she's proposing, already in place.
We reached out to city officials about that, and thoughts on the ideas proposed in her petition. Department of Streets and Sanitation spokeswoman Cristina Villarreal said in a statement:
"Streets and Sanitation begins preparing the City's emergency snow response in June. We are always interested in ways to improve the work we do, and we take into consideration best practices in other cities. Currently, we are focused on responding to the most recent snow system."
"I don't care how long it takes to find a solution," Goss said. "If other states can do it, we can do it."
Chicago Streets and San's full snow removal plan can be found here.
