A snow plow status map launched by the City of Greater Sudbury on Monday afternoon allows the public access to a GPS-fed map of where winter maintenance crews have been.
During an operations committee meeting of city council on Monday, city Linear Infrastructure Technical Support Services manager Dan Thibeault walked members through the system.
The status map, he said, “is a tool to provide openness and transparency with our residents, giving them a glimpse into our daily operations.”
The map is continually updated on a 30-minute delay, with municipal streets and sidewalks painted three colours:
- Green, indicating they’ve been serviced within the last 12 hours
- Blue, meaning they’ve been serviced within the last 12 to 24 hours
- Orange, serviced between 24 and 48 hours
- Brown, no recent servicing
Users can toggle between roads and sidewalks.
Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent commended city staff for creating the maps, which he said should help clarify that winter control crews operate throughout the municipality.
A common complaint from residents of outlying communities is that their roads are not serviced to the degree as roads in Sudbury.
City Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti also noted that although people can look out their front window to see whether their road has been plowed, the map will now allow residents to see whether the roads leading up to their destination have been plowed.
The hope is that the tool will help answer some of the questions that people have when they phone the 311 customer service line, he said.
Thibeault’s report flagged 1,530 calls to 311 last year regarding snow plowing, followed by approximately 600 calls regarding slippery/icy roads, sidewalks and stairs.
These are last year’s second- and third-place topics handled by 311 operators, following potholes/heaves and dips at 6,300.
“Once something is new and fresh, there are a lot of questions, so we’ve prepared our 311 staff for basic questions we expect,” Thibeault said of the new map.
“We plan on a lot of questions out the gate, and then those being resolved once the public is familiar with the tool.”
The map is available at greatersudbury.ca/plowmap.
A video of Thibeault demonstrating how to use the map is available by clicking here, beginning at the video’s 35:30 mark.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.