July was a busy month for me, so it’s only now that I finally get a chance to compile my Moving Day pictures and post them.
This group took about 15 minutes to haul a fridge up a flight of stairs. For a little while, it looked like it might end in disaster.
During the winter, when huge snowbanks are blocking the sides of streets, I’ve noticed many drivers like to bend the rules when it comes to where they can park their cars.
In the summer, I think it’s just laziness.
Really? You’re going to park across the entire Bixi station? Do you not know what it’s for? Has it not been talked about enough in the news that you don’t recognize it?
I know it used to be a parking space, but you don’t think the giant contraption (not to mention the red “no parking” bag over the meter post) might have been an indication not to park there?
No wonder we need garish concrete barriers installed next to these stations.
A fire hydrant at Sherbrooke and Clark forces this driver to park a bit ahead
Then we have this guy (or girl), who decided to obey that don’t-park-in-front-of-the-fire-hydrant rule but disregard that don’t-park-too-close-to-intersections rule.
You'd think the fact that you have to park at an angle might be an indication you're too close to the corner.
It looks like it's making a turn, but there's no one inside.
What gets me is I’m pretty sure I saw the same car parked the same way in the same space a few weeks earlier. Someone needs to give the driver a ticket or this behaviour is going to continue (or worse, spread).
(UPDATED with late-night shots)
You’ve seen the original. Now the all-new sequel, following the storm of the year.
12 feet from the sidewalk. A new record. Not anymore. See below.
As the snow fell this weekend on Montreal, the post-snowfall ritual sprang into action. It usually starts with lots of people complaining about the fact that the snow hasn’t been plowed yet. The complaints come so fast I have a feeling they’re written before the snow starts falling in the first place. With the complaints come increasingly ludicrous suggestions on how to fix the problem, such as:
Almost all the letters are ignorant of just how much organization goes into plowing streets in Montreal, and assume that, without having spent a single second inside a snow plow, they know better how to efficiently clear streets.
Really, the complaints are more misplaced frustration at having to spend two hours digging out their car with a shovel when they were already late for work. Sadly, no magical solution has been found for that yet.
The city then gives a guesstimate about how long it will take to clear, overemphasizing the fact that more snow or rain will delay the operation.
Then, as the plows finally come by to clear the streets, car-owners who ignored no-parking signs panic to relocate them before getting a ticket.
The big difference this time is that the city decided to open up its paid parking lots for free overnight parking (when they’re not used anyway). Drivers can park their cars in them during snow-clearing operations, provided they get them out of there by 6am 7am (thanks Andy) the next day.
Except, because the move was poorly publicized (or because no one wants to get up that early), the lots sat unused this time.
So instead, drivers desperate for a place to park had to each solve the standard snowbank parking dilemma. When faced with a free spot knee-deep in snow, there are three options:
The pictures below show some Montreal drivers who chose Option 3 on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.