Clear densely-packed snow from driveway?

I use one of these, edger. Works best for me.

Given that you have already got the packed layer (clear any snow before driving on it is the way to avoid that) your choices are chip away at it, chemistry, or physics.

Chemistry is salt or calcium chloride. Salt is cheaper, calcium chloride works at lower temperatures. Even if you don't use enough to melt everything, if it can melt some holes through to the black sufrace, that will help with...

Physics depends on whether the sun shines. When it does, spreading anything that makes the driveway dark will help it to melt itself clear - wood ashes, the dirtier rocksalt (chemistry AND physics), sand, etc. - those will also help to get some traction on the icy layer until it does melt clear. Getting any part of the black surface exposed will also help. Under some conditions, once you get a strip cleared, you may be able to find times of day when you can peel up a fairly large sheet of ice once the sun has started to work on it.

Chipping away at it is a LOT of work for anything more than a tiny driveway.

Realistically it may not be possible to remove 2-3 inches of packed snow & ice at this point without using an obscene amount of ice-melt chemicals. I would say you should just use enough to break up any smooth ice that might be a safety hazard and then wait until temperatures warm enough for you to shovel the slush off.

If you are insistent on trying to remove the snow now, I like to use a heavy snow scoop like this: https://www.suncast.com/sf1850.html The metal edge and two-handed handle make it easier to break up and move packed snow. It might be hard to find something like that this late in the winter, though.

But really, next year you should just try to stay on top of it and shovel before cars drive over the snow.

Wait until the temperature drops as low as it will, then it will break up into chunks a lot easier right down to the asphalt or cement surface and shovel off with a lot less effort. From the land of the frozen chozen.

i'm also in search of innovative ways to remove packed snow. I clear driveways all winter long for income, and clients can't help themselves (even during strict lockdowns) but to drive over the fresh snow. This is so frequent in my clientele that I have removed scraping and hard-pack policies from the general snow clearing service, with on-demand and additional charge if they want it. Otherwise I'd be scraping every driveway for a half hour.

I've found that an ice chopper works well for this, and calcium chloride works too, but I also saw a man using a scraper made of flat sheet metal. I can't find anything like it but he was doing magic with a 1' wide x 8" high piece of metal at the end of a stick. Perhaps it was sharpened?

One "faster" way I've found to bring up the hard-pack (only when it's newer, i'd say), is to load up a snow pusher with snow and then - while holding the shovel at angle like a plow - push down and through to the end of the driveway. (I say the end because wehre I live the driveways are always slanted down and using gravity lightens the work). This is a problem with uneven driveways but works on smooth every time if i'm quick on my routes. That being said, it is difficult with a metal wear strip and wears down plastic push shovels.