Snowplow tracking apps hold cities accountable for cleanup
CHICAGO (AP) - Cities across the country are increasingly making snowplow-tracking data public in free mobile apps.
Chicago and New York introduced apps in 2012. Seattle has one, as do several places in Maryland and Virginia. Boston briefly experimented, too, though their site was so popular it crashed during a February 2013 storm.
Cities want to show skeptics that plow drivers are out there working hard - and not just in areas home to the wealthy and politically connected.
But average citizens have also scrutinized the sites for slipups.
Thirty-one-year-old Chicago video producer Alexandra Clark says she felt compelled to tweet the mayor's office a photo of her snow-filled street last January after the app said a plow had passed an hour earlier.
Clarks says such initiatives help people hold cities to account.
In this Dec. 19, 2014 photo, Alexandra Clark, a fan of the City of Chicago snowplow tracker app prepares to remove the overnight snow from her car in Chicago. In a city so traumatized and obsessed with snow, itâs little surprise an computer app tracking the movements of Chicagoâs hundreds of snow plows in real time has built up such an obsessive following. in a tweet to the mayorâs office last January, Clark, said, âPlow tracker said my street was plowed an hour ago - Pull the other leg,â She included a photo showing her street in the West Side Wicker Park neighborhood was still choked with snow. A pair of heavy truck tire tracks suggested a plow might indeed have passed, but with the blade up. Snow is frozen into Chicago lore. The city averages around 40 inches each winter; last winter the city got more than 80. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
The Associated Press
In this Dec. 19, 2014 photo, Alexandra Clark, displays the City of Chicago snowplow tracker app on her iPod in front of her car in Chicago. In a city so traumatized and obsessed with snow, itâs little surprise an computer app tracking the movements of Chicagoâs hundreds of snow plows in real time has built up such an obsessive following. in a tweet to the mayorâs office last January, Clark, said, âPlow tracker said my street was plowed an hour ago - Pull the other leg,â She included a photo showing her street in the West Side Wicker Park neighborhood was still choked with snow. A pair of heavy truck tire tracks suggested a plow might indeed have passed, but with the blade up. Snow is frozen into Chicago lore. The city averages around 40 inches each winter; last winter the city got more than 80. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2014 file photo, a Chicago Department of Public Works snowplow kicks up a spray of slush as he clears streets in Chicago. In a city so traumatized and obsessed with snow, itâs little surprise a computer app tracking the movements of Chicagoâs hundreds of snow plows in real time has built up such an obsessive following. Think of it as an outlet for Chicagoansâ collective snow neurosis. In the three years since it launched, the tracker has turned average citizens into plow watchdogs, giving them a place to look for answers instead of blowing up phone lines at city call centers to fume over why their street is still impassible. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2011 file photo, salt spreading snow plows are parked in at a city fleet garage in Chicago. In a city so traumatized and obsessed with snow, itâs little surprise a computer app tracking the movements of Chicagoâs hundreds of snow plows in real time has built up such an obsessive following. Think of it as an outlet for Chicagoansâ collective snow neurosis. In the three years since it launched, the tracker has turned average citizens into plow watchdogs, giving them a place to look for answers instead of blowing up phone lines at city call centers to fume over why their street is still impassible. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green,File)
The Associated Press
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