Whose Snow Is It, Anyway?

Here in New Jersey's suburbs, where we get about 50" of precipitation a year, we don't think much about riparian rights. We leave it to people west of the Rockies to rival each other in taking more water out of the Colorado River.

After a large blizzard, though, we do think about who owns the snow. At least I do.

The government clears the snow off the public roadways with large and powerful snow plows. The private citizen, on the other hand, removes snow from his or her driveway and walkways by shovel, blower or plow.

Here's what goes through the mind of the private citizen: "I have just shoveled/blown/plowed my driveway and along comes the public snow plow, depositing an enormous berm at the end of my driveway. Phooey!

"Also, removing snow from my car and driveway is a lot of work. If I remove it from my car, it falls in my driveway, where I have to remove it again. On the other hand, if I leave it atop my car I can drive out into the public roadway. Then it blows off and the next snow plow pushes it into a ditch, or makes a berm at someone else's driveway. That is so much easier. Besides, I can't reach the top of my SUV to push off the snow anyway."

The state of New Jersey is two steps ahead of that average driver, outlawing driving around with a snow cover on the vehicle. Clearly, this is a safety measure to prevent sheets of ice from flying off flatbed trucks and breaking someone's windshield. But the net effect is that the government is telling people to keep snow on their private property, not on the public roads.

When the government then pushes more (public roadway) snow onto (private) driveways, you can see how the citizenry might be irritated. Citizenry with clout fight back by engaging snow plows. The plows shove the snow out of the private driveways and into the public roadways, neatly destroying berms and making the private snow the responsibility of the public plows.

The rest of us sigh and throw our backs out.

If you're thinking that the answer is to close up your house and fly to Arizona for the winter and fret about how to supplement your 11" of annual rainfall with water from the Colorado, check your insurance policy. Does it require you to plow your driveway, even if you're not there, in case emergency vehicles need to get to your house? Gotcha.

Finally, aren't sidewalks a good example of the tension between public and private snow?

Once I had a blind roommate. I know how vital clear walkways are to independent living.

And many times I have been the muscle behind the snow shovel. I know I would rather remain inside on a snowy day than trudge outside and clear a pathway for other people's benefit.

Shoveling my driveway benefits me, in that it allows me to move my car. Shoveling the sidewalk really doesn't, and yet, if I have one, the government obliges me to clear it--under threat of a fine.

That's part of the protest against adding sidewalks along Woodland Avenue in Summit.

If there were an easy answer, I would include it here. I don't think there is.