Parking tips for this weather

It occurred to me that this cold and snow might be some of our neighbours' first experiences with this. Here are some tips for successful parking in a post-snowstorm city:

• Get a shovel you can keep in your car. There are collapsible ones that don't take too much space.
• If the only place you can park is full of snow, double park beside it, put on your hazards, and shovel it out. There are a lot of snow drifts you can drive into but not out of. This is doubly true if it hardens to icy black stuff under your car.
• If you get stuck, try both forward and reverse with your wheels at extreme angles. Go slow and try to get traction. *Do not* just accelerate hard. This will burn your tires through the snow and ice, creating a worse trap, and once you hit asphalt you'll start burning your tires.
• If you can't get out, put the car in park and *diagnose*. How many wheels are trapped? Is snow built up under the car? This is a physics problem, take your time and identify it.
• Once you figure out what is trapping you, start removing the snow and ice from those spots. Try moving again.
• If you have no luck, you may need a push. If someone pushes, *communicate clearly* to avoid injury. The pusher must create a rocking motion that builds with inertia until you can get purchase by giving gas.
• Protip: buy a bag of rock salt and leave it in your car. If it's going to snow or if it's wet where you parked, put down some salt around your tires. You'll thank yourself later.
• Lastly, dress for the weather. If you have a car issue you can quickly get very cold working outside. Take breaks and warm up in the car.
• Lastly again: hot water works for making ice easier to remove, but be sure you've properly diagnosed what is trapping you. Water will cool and then freeze if you still can't get out, and now it's worse!

Good luck, and if you see a neighbour struggling, help them! Unstucking cars is hard work.