Amongst all the hullabaloo that’s resulted from UW’s cancellation of classes from extreme temperatures, it has become incredibly apparent to this observant car-person that not only does it suck having a car in Madison, but it especially sucks when its winter in Madison.
Case-in-point: Our quaint Madison residence has a small parking lot behind it which can hold, at most, six cars. Our landlords, bless their souls, often shoveled the lot when we received our small snow dustings in November. But after the colossal amount of snow we’ve received in the last week, our landlords decided shoveling wouldn’t cut it. Nope, what was truly needed wasn’t just snowblowers, but a full-on plow. Which, all things considered, is pretty helpful for us, because our cars were having quite some trouble getting in and out of said parking lot. That is, until the plow driver decided to plow exactly half of our lot, leave a giant mountain of heavy snow in the middle, and never return again (its been 7 days since he or she plowed). Not only are cars now trapped behind this undefeatable mound of compacted plow-residue, but we now have half the spaces we usually have for parking, with the same amount of cars that need to be parked!
All this points to the fact that yes, it is indeed a challenge owning a car in downtown Madison. But it is even more challenging when your parking area is partially buried from a snow plow that can’t be bothered to return after three more snowfalls. And parking on the street certainly isn’t any better – a walk down Spring Street exhibits a myriad of cars surrounded by snow piles taller than their wheel arches. An acquaintance of mine claims it took her 45 minutes to dig out her car. That’s simply too long in college-kid time. My recommendation: maybe consider leaving the car at the parents or somewhere else until the largest of snow storms have passed, otherwise you’re going to have a bad time.
