Neighbors want to know why Snow Plow Map isn’t more accurate; City of Syracuse says it’s working on improving it: Your Stories

Posted: Dec 3, 2019 / 05:36 PM EST / Updated: Dec 4, 2019 / 07:33 AM EST

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The NewsChannel 9’s Your Stories line has been flooded with people in Syracuse frustrated with the city’s new Snow Plow Map. Many people in one particular neighborhood want to know why the GPS system for city plows isn’t spot on.

NewsChannel 9’s Nicole Sommavilla looked into it.

When the storm was all said and done, neighbors in the Comstock area stepped outside to bare pavement, but while flakes were flying, the wintry weather painted a different picture on the roads.

“It’s very frustrating,” said a neighbor who lives near Thayer Street, who didn’t want her name or face shared.

Photos sent to the Your Stories team by Tyler Knapp, timestamped just before 8 p.m. Monday, show streets in that neighborhood covered in snow.

Tyler Knapp
Tyler Knapp
Tyler Knapp

When neighbors pulled up the Snow Plow Map in the area of Thayer St. and Arnold Ave. around 8 p.m. they say it showed green, indicating the streets had been plowed, but those neighbors tell NewsChannel 9’s Nicole Sommavilla they didn’t see a plow until after 9:30 p.m.

“The one street down there that’s one block long, Pine Grove, it showed it being plowed and it was definitely not plowed,” said a neighbor, off-camera.

The City of Syracuse says the map is “fairly accurate” but is constantly being improved.

“We’re tweaking it a little, we want to make sure it’s tracking properly,” said Ann Fordock, First Deputy Commissioner at the DPW.

Fordock said if the system isn’t restarted before every storm the readings will overlap, and right now, it only updates every hour.

“It may say 8 a.m. but it may just mean they were there between 7 and 8 a.m.,” said Fordock.

A neighbor in the Comstock area told NewsChannel 9 she doesn’t think the map is effective the way it is, and she’s hoping those tweaks will happen fast.

When asked if she thinks it would be useful if it’s updated, she said, “I think it probably would be for people who need to go to other neighborhoods, to be able to look and see if the streets are plowed and whether they wanna risk getting stuck or not.”

The city of Syracuse is working with its API team to make the tracking system more accurate. The goal is to have DPW plows ping every 15 seconds to update the map more frequently.

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For more local news, follow Nicole Sommavilla on Twitter @NeSommavilla