You dig your car out of the snow, run an errand or two and come back home to discover…someone else has parked in “your” spot! This free rider problem reduces your incentive to dig your car out in the first place. If only property rights could be enforced, your incentives would be good. It turns out that Bostonians have solved this problem:
Cold-weather cities like Boston, however, have gone so far as to enact laws on the subject. The Post reports that in Boston, “a city law says that if you dig out your car in a snow emergency, a lawn chair or trash can renders the spot yours for at least two days while you’re away at work.”
The Windy City is relying on social norms instead:
In Chicago, the article adds, citizens cannot legally block a parking spot but even city officials acknowledge an “informal rule of dibs” in favor of the person who has dug out the spot.
Hat Tip: Andrew Ellis, job candidate from B.U.
Cheap Talk 
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January 24, 2013 at 6:34 pm
Trinity Rivers
I lived in Boston and it was always a battle to keep your parking space. It was infuriating to spend all morning to digging your car out an come home to have someone parked there.
January 25, 2013 at 8:10 am
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January 25, 2013 at 9:45 am
Nathan Wonder
In Lakeview/Lincon park there are just not enough parking spots. So let’s say I have a late night at work the day before a heavy overnight snow. I drive around for 30+ minutes looking for a parking spot within 4 blocks of my apartment. Nothing. So I drive a little further away and (by the grace of God) find a parking spot JUST big enough for my car to squeeze in to that is a full 3/4 of a mile away from my front door.
Then it snows all night.
Everyone gets up and digs their car out of the snow. Including me. And on this day I get out of work early, excited to be able to park closer to my front door. I drive up my street only to see it littered with garbage cans and lawn chairs with no available parking spot. The same thing on the next street. And the next. So now I have to park in the same far away spot I parked the night before instead of being able to park in any one of the dozens of car-free spots closer.
I dug my car out of the snow, too. I don’t think I should be subjected to a hike through 3/4 of a mile of unshoveled sidewalk -again- because I was unlucky enough to have bad timing at work the night before a heavy snow.
I do not think “dibs” works in every neighborhood. I can, however, see it working in neighborhoods with single family homes and 3-flats where you can often park much closer to your front door.
February 4, 2013 at 8:53 pm
Brown9554
As a longtime Boston area resident, I can attest that the ‘rule'(whether legal or a social norm) in practice is highly inefficient. As Nathan points out, the result is a dramatically worse parking situation than prior to a snowstorm, even after most everyone has dug out. That’s because a large percentage of the spaces are occupied by chairs and trash cans when they could be occupied by cars. (Available-parking-spots x Hours) drops dramatically. A social norm whereby all are expected to shovel out the spot they occupy upon conclusion of the snow storm would return the parking situation back to normal nearly immediately.
March 7, 2013 at 4:41 am
Jenny
4. Supposing I were to find an efficient route thgruoh the parking lot to the library, what would I then need to do – once inside the library and seated at a computer (right?) – to further my studies in the area of 1930’s burlesque sideshow performance?
March 8, 2013 at 4:56 am
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