For those of you who shovel your sidewalks by hand, no snowblower or employee doing it, how wide do you shovel?
Without exception, as far as I can see, my neibhbors shovel the whole width of their personal sidewalk (to their door) and the one at right angles to that (to the neighbors), which is about 3 feet.
OTOH, I shovel the width I need to walk on the sidewalk without getting snow in my shoes or in the cuffs of my pants, about 18", which is two widths of my lightweight aluminum shove. or two overlapping widths when I use the coal shovel I found in the trash and cut off to be relatively straight at the end.
Which do you do?
If you do the whole width, do you look down on, despise, people like me? Or do you wish you could be like me? or do you ignore me?
For those of you who shovel your sidewalks by hand, no snowblower or employee doing it, how wide do you shovel?
Without exception, as far as I can see, my neibhbors shovel the whole width of their personal sidewalk (to their door) and the one at right angles to that (to the neighbors), which is about 3 feet.
OTOH, I shovel the width I need to walk on the sidewalk without getting snow in my shoes or in the cuffs of my pants, about 18", which is two widths of my lightweight aluminum shove. or two overlapping widths when I use the coal shovel I found in the trash and cut off to be relatively straight at the end.
Which do you do?
If you do the whole width, do you look down on, despise, people like me? Or do you wish you could be like me? or do you ignore me?
You have good neighbors. What is their opinion of you? WW
Full width. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.
You want to allow for two people walking side by side, perhaps assisting one who's disabled, perhaps walking a dog, perhaps with compromised vision - lots of reasons to do more than a narrow path.
Also, the narrow path gets harder to keep clear, as later snows get walked on, and as melt water freezes.
I do not have sidewalks along the road in front of my house. I have a single width driveway with a flower bed on one side and a lawn on the other. I typically clear the driveway from edge to edge and then widen it about 36" by removing the snow from the lawn. For the walkway from my stoop to my driveway, I typically double the width, again by clearing the snow from the lawn along side it. My snowblower, tilted back at a slight angle, makes quick work of this.
As the snow piles up, the extra width gives us room to walk, open car doors, move the snowblower around in the driveway, etc.
I also clear a 24" path (the width of my snowblower) across my front lawn from my walkway to my neighbor's driveway so the mail carrier and newspaper lady don't have to trudge through the snow or walk all the way out to the street and back.
When the snow is really deep, I will run the snowblower all the way around my house so I can get to the back door, shed, deck, etc.
When I was growing up in NYC, I always frowned upon the one or two homeowners on our block who either didn't clear their sidewalks fully or didn't clear them at all. Obviously, there needs to be some leeway for the elderly or frail, but as for the homeowners who are just too lazy to make it easier for people (especially the elderly or frail) walk down the sidewalk, well, I definitely looked down on them.
There were a few of us who made sure that the stoops and sidewalks of the elderly and frail were kept clear of snow for their safety. The occasional batch of cookies or the offer of a cup of coffee made it all worthwhile.
Does your city not have ordinances requiring the WHOLE sidewalk to be cleared? Around here in Central Oregon, that is the case. It's not a matter of walking, it's a matter of your liability should someone slip and fall on your sidewalk.
These are all good reasons, though none really apply to me. I'm the last house on the sidewalk so anyone using it is coming to my house. No one who is disabled ever comes to my house, no one with a dog, no one with bad vision. And the only pairs of people who might come are missionaries, and when they see how narrow the path is, they can walk one by one, or not come at all which would be fine with me.
Also a good reason, but not so much in Baltimore where it's rarely cold for very long. This one might apply on occasion. I wonder what my mailman thinks. I'll ask him.
People should walk on the shoveled part. It's not my fault if they don't. Failure to follow a city ordinance would not in itself make me liable. If the failure were also negligence, (and the proximate cause of the injury) that would make me liable.
The judge is the one you have to make this particular argument to. In Indiana (anyway) the judge or jury can apportion degree of negligence. If they had a usable path and did not take, they would certainly have some degree of culpability.,
I start off with a wider swath than I end up with as I get tired. I'm a middle aged (and then some) 5' tall woman, and in my neighborhood, no one goes around looking for business shoveling. I spend my energy on my driveway, and frequently let the sidewalk fend for itself. Most of the neighbors seem to follow that approach. The mailman says he doesn't care as long as the driveways are clear enough to get to the mailboxes. My home & driveway are positioned directly across from a right angle road (ie, if the person coming down that road neglects to turn left or right, they'll end up in my driveway). Problem is that when the county plow comes down that road and swings to its right, it shoves all of its snow up on top of part of the public sidewalk. One time, the pile was almost my height and several feet wide, so no way could I clear the sidewalk.
When I was house hunting, I actually wanted to find a house with no public sidewalk so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. Alas, I didn't find a house I liked, but in my immediate neighborhood at least half of the blocks don't have a sidewalk. I'm seriously considering finding out if I'm required to have a sidewalk, or if I can just remove it and plant grass!
Although we don't get a lot of snow here just north of Baltimore, we have a 90' drive and every so often we get so much snow that I can't get the car out to the street unless I clear the drive. I bought a good two-stage blowe r but only use it every third year, on average. Still, when needed, it's a lifesaver. Starting in November, I start it up and let it run for several m inutes on the first weekend of every month to make sure it's ready for acti on.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.