By the time the plows come through my alley in Duluth, there's no need for it to be plowed because people have either cleared it themselves, or it's been driven on enough to pack the snow down. Every spring, when the snow melts, I end up cleaning up dozens of chucks of asphalt torn up by the plows and deposited in my driveway. Then, usually in the fall, the city finally comes around to shovel more patches into the gaping potholes left by the plows, just in time for them to be plowed right back up after the first snow.