The City of Ottawa is set to release a new app in November that will allow residents to track snowplows.
The app, called “Where’s my Snowplow?” is being launched by the city’s public works department in a bid to reduce the annual flurry of phone calls to the city’s information line from citizens wondering when their street will be cleared after a snowfall.
The app will use GPS tracking to alert residents when the snowplows are coming.
Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt told CBC this is information Ottawa residents want to know, and that he hopes will be of use to them.
Shovelling is just one of the foreseen benefits. Others include travel planning and being able to avoid a ticket by having advanced notice to get vehicles off streets about to be plowed.
With the cold weather just around the corner, many Ottawa residents are looking forward to this new technology, expressing interest via Twitter and other online platforms.
Twitter users have conveyed their strong support for the innovation, saying they are now ready for winter to come and that the information the app provides is a top priority for any Canadian.
However, others have taken to the online community Reddit to voice concerns. Many of the complaints centre on the time and money the city has invested in the project, with one user saying they would rather see the effort put towards a review of parking regulations.
A similar snowplow app was released in Montreal last winter, called “Info Neige MTL.” That app, which covered five city boroughs, allowed residents to save locations and receive notifications up to four hours in advance of when the snowplows would be coming, giving them time to move their cars.
According to City of Montreal spokesman Jacques-Alain Lavallée, the app received over 50,000 downloads and targeted over 300,000 households.
The Montreal app had some problems, however, such as a slow information update times, which caused confusion among residents. In some instances the app, which only updated every three hours, would say a street had not been cleared yet when it had been. Another complaint with the Montreal app was that the technology was only available for iPhones.
Lavallée said that a full assessment of the pilot project will be released next month, as well as a list of the additional boroughs that will be added to the app this winter.
Nova Scotia has a similar technology, the Provincial Plow Tracker. It’s an interactive online map that displays where snowplows are and which type of plow it is.
Lauren Murray, a native Nova Scotian now living in Ottawa, says her family used the online tool last winter and found it useful. Murray says she can see the value of a similar app in Ottawa, especially for drivers who commute every day.
“It would help people avoid unsafe roads that haven’t been plowed,” Murray said. Ottawa officials were contacted, but no further information could be disclosed at this time. According to city officials, more information about “Where’s my Snowplow?” will be released ahead of the app’s November launch.