On Jeffco winter roads, give plows room to work

Winter driving in Jeffco is not only about your own tires. The other half is leaving room for the heavy equipment that keeps the road open in the first place. Three habits do most of the work: don’t pass a plow on the right, don’t stop close behind one, and don’t park along a narrow road where a plow needs to get through.

Those rules read as common sense on a wide street, but they earn their keep up in the foothills and in older subdivisions, where roads can be narrow, steep, shaded most of the day, and already lined with parked cars. County crews run assigned routes through unincorporated Jeffco, and a plow that cannot safely squeeze past a parked car or a tailgater has to leave that stretch for later. The snow you were hoping to drive through stays put, and so does everyone else’s.

Passing on the right is the riskiest of the three, because a plow throws snow and slush to that side and the driver’s view of you there is poor. Crowding the back bumper is nearly as bad, since plows stop and reverse more than you would expect.

The fix is cheap and it pays off for the whole street. When a storm is in the forecast, pull your car off the road and into a driveway or lot if you can, and give the plow a clear lane. Do that, and the road clears sooner for you and for every neighbor waiting to get out after the snow stops.