Midweek Takes #19

Dibs. And your bi-weekly article roundup.

DIBS: Driving Is Bad, Sorry.

Zach Ellerbrook on Flickr.

It’s snowing everywhere again so it’s time to talk about one of our silliest traditions: reserving an on-street parking spot. “Dibs” is a uniquely American phenomenon and it’s unique to only some cities in the US—big, snowy Northeastern and Midwestern cities (but not, curiously, New York). To call “dibs” on a street parking spot, an industrious shoveler will dig out a heavily snowed-in space and plant in its place a lawn chair, a mic stand, an orange parking cone, a child’s toy, an emblem of sorts, to mark that this spot is the re…