The stretch of road where Martin was waiting for the bus in South Boston was cleared to the curb, but the adjacent sidewalk was nearly impassable because of snow.

“Is it really?” said the 43-year-old Bunker Hill Community College student. “I have got to get to school this week but now they’re telling me that! Really?”

As Debra Martin waited Saturday on the side of Dorchester Street for a bus so she could refill some prescriptions, she expressed disbelief that as much as a foot and a half of new snow was expected to fall during the next few days on the already snow-clogged artery.


“I think it’s horrific,” said Martin, who uses a cane to get around. “I walk in the street. That’s what everyone does.”

Her sentiment was repeated across the city as residents braced for another round of snowfall while still contending with the wintry detritus from previous storms that narrowed some streets, created towering snowbanks, and turned some sidewalks into treacherous paths.

A slow-moving storm front is expected to lurch through Massachusetts over the next couple of days, leaving as much as 18 to 24 inches of snow from Boston up the North Shore and into the Merrimack Valley, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton.

“The storm is prolonged, rather than a classic nor’easter,” said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the weather service.

Dorchester resident Matt Mittelstadt said he was concerned about conditions on Dorchester Avenue, where the road was so snow-choked that parked cars jutted into the designated bike lane, leaving a narrowed lane for drivers.

“People are parking so far out into [Dorchester Avenue] that it’s hard for two [cars] to pass each other,” he said. “Boston is cramped and the streets are old and narrow.”

Dorchester Avenue is among the major arteries where parking is prohibited during snow emergencies.


A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston said public works crews have “worked around the clock” to clear snow from those areas during snow emergencies.

“Since then, no parking signs have been temporarily posted on streets that need additional clean-up to allow plows to clear spaces,” spokeswoman Bonnie McGilpin said in a statement. “This work is ongoing.”

Maria Ortiz and her children, 7-year-old Joel and 10-year-old Isabel Perez, walked Saturday afternoon from South Bay Center to South Boston, trying to find a clear path amid a patchwork of sidewalks and roads that ranged from snow-free passages to areas that appeared untouched by shovel or plow.

At one point, they were forced to walk in the street. Ortiz said the extra snowfall will not help.

“It’s going to be even more dangerous,” she said.

In Roxbury, 67-year-old Victor Brown stood in front of his house on Hutchings Street and pointed with exasperation to a huge snow pile that had conquered his driveway.

His car was covered in snow, completely immobile.

“What can I do with this?” asked Brown as cars slowly picked their way down the slushy street, squeezing between parked vehicles.

Brown, a substitute teacher in Boston’s public schools, said he has been calling Walsh’s hotline seeking help with snow removal so he could get to his car.

“I know Mother Nature is doing its job, and I’m OK with that, but I need the city to help me,” he said.


At the intersection of Humboldt Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, Mamie O’Neal said she called Walsh’s hotline after someone dumped a pile of snow that blocked the entrance to her hair salon last week during snow removal operations.

O’Neal, who has owned The Hair Kingdom for 18 years, said she removed the snow on her own.

“It’s unfair that they put it in front of the storefront,” she said.

On Sagamore Street in Dorchester, some cars remained buried in snow.

In one section where two-way traffic is permitted, the road was so congested that drivers were limited to passing one at a time.

Mittelstadt, who lives there, said the city should have kept the most recent snow emergency in place longer to give the plows more time to remove snow.

He predicted that conditions will deteriorate further during the next storm system.

“I haven’t heard anything about the possibility of a snow emergency so it’ll probably just get worse,” he said.

Weather resources:

Globe correspondent Jennifer Smith contributed. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi. Melissa Hanson can be reached at melissa.hanson@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @Melissa__Hanson.