Vaughan
November 27, 2008 12:01 AM
City’s new GPS system lets you track the plows
Stefania Lamacchia
If old man winter wants to pile on the white stuff this year, Vaughan will be ready.
Every plow, salter and widrow clearing unit will be armed with GPS tracking devices, so residents can trace every move on the city’s website.
“The navigation systems will be very good to help residents get a better understanding of the work we do,” said Brian Anthony, Vaughan’s director of public works. “We are out there working and perhaps even on their own area.”
Vaughan was one of the first cities in North America to introduce the system of streamlining a weblink to the public back in December 2001, Mr. Anthony said.
The program ran until 2004-05 when budget cuts put an end to the system altogether. It was re-introduced the following year, but only as an internal monitoring system for city officials.
This winter, we’ll see the tracking devices back online for the public to monitor the city’s plows and avoid a repeat of last year’s problems.
The city will lease 135 GPS units at a cost of about $18 per unit, each month.
Vaughan currently has 46 plow routes, but Mr. Anthony reminds residents that with development the number is growing each year and there is a priority system in place for snow clearing.
If a snowstorm hits Vaughan all vehicles are deployed to higher traffic areas first, including main roads and transit bus routes, Mr. Anthony said.
The benefit of the system is residents can follow the winter vehicles online to see when exactly their area will be cleared.
Despite receiving a number of complaints last year about driveways being blocked, city representatives said there’s only so much they can do.
“If residents cannot wait for the widrow unit to come by, they’ll have to shovel the snow. We cannot be moving pieces of equipment everywhere because they follow the plows on their pre-arranged routes,” Mr. Anthony said.
The residential driveway widrow are expected to come by approximately two to three hours after the snow plows have cleared the streets.
To ensure the system stays in place for future years, the city plans to make good use of the navigation systems even during off seasons.
The units are not portable — as city councillors earlier suggested — but Mr. Anthony said although they’re wired into the trucks, they can be used elsewhere.
“We can put them in all of our street sweeping units so we can track which streets are swept. When they come out of there, we can put them in any other contracted vehicles,” Mr. Anthony said.
Residents should keep a lookout for a city letter that will be sent out soon detailing the new plans for the winter.