It's All About the Parking

It's been getting warmer each day and all the snow is melting away. I don't feel bad about spending all that time scraping the driveway, although it isn't doing the concrete any favors and I'll eventually have to replace the whole thing. But that's in my long-term plan anyway since we really need to expand the section in front of the third bay in order to have the amount of parking that we need. 

The HOA (or "Fourth Reich" as we like to call it) dictates that we are not allowed to park on the grass, and there have been times when we had to do just that in order to accommodate all the family and friends who were visiting. In our development, and in many neighborhoods in this part of the country, it is not allowed to leave cars parked out on the street during the winter months because the snowplows must be unimpeded in their morning rounds. And on at least one day out of the week, the roads must be clear of impediments so that the trash and recycling trucks can get through.

Our driveway (and garage), as originally designed, allows up to 8 cars to be parked comfortably (see Figure 1). Since I'm using the 3rd garage bay for my shop, that would normally reduce the maximum to 7 (see Figure 2), but we've managed to be clever about it and park two cars at angles in the third lane thus keeping it at 8 (see Figure 3). 

Once the third lane of the driveway is completed (assuming it ever gets started!), we'll still be able to comfortably park 8 (see Figure 4), and maybe 9 (See Figure 5) if I'm able to find another place to put all my shop tools! The thought of that excites me because we love to have people over, especially if they can sing in harmony.

Obviously this will require some delicate car ballet to ensure everyone is able to leave when they need to go, but at least they won't have to deal with the fact that our streets are not wide enough to handle cars parking on both sides and allow traffic to get through without risk of damage. You wouldn't believe how many people in our neighborhood not only park on street -- on a curve! -- but also can't seem to find the curb and end up halfway out into the street. And then some other idiot decides to park on the other side of the street exactly opposite.

Some people are such idiots...