Peterborough residents who are wondering which streets have been plowed after it snows have a new tool at their disposal, courtesy of the City of Peterborough.
The city has launched a new online snowplow tracker map with close-to-real-time information about the location of plows and their progress during winter maintenance operations, including the clearing and treating of roads after snow events.
Developed by the city’s geomatics and mapping division in collaboration with the public works division, the map uses GPS and automatic vehicle location technology to display the location and progress of snowplows every five minutes. The map will be active for the winter season.
“This new interactive map enhances the visibility of our operations and helps the community better understand how and when roads are being cleared,” says Cassandra Babcock, the city’s public works operations director, in a media release.
In addition to showing the location of snowplows, the map also uses colour-coding to display the last time a road has been serviced, with a road coloured green meaning less than an hour, orange meaning one to two hours, blue two to six hours, pink six to 12 hours, purple 12 to 24 hours, and white more than 24 hours.
According to the city, the map is for informational purposes only and does not guarantee current road conditions or safety. The city advises residents to always practise safe driving techniques, drive according to the current conditions, and avoid driving in adverse conditions when possible.
The map also provides no information about when a street may be plowed. The city says it designs snowplow routes to clear and treat arterial and collector roads first, as required by legislated standards.
These are the roads that see the highest volume of daily traffic, are on transit routes, or pass by Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
Once arterial and collector roads have been plowed and treated, snowplows will then proceed to clear and treat streets in residential neighbourhoods.
A statement from city councillors Keith Riel and Don Vassiliadis, who are co-chairs of the city’s municipal operations portfolio, calls the map “a valuable resource for our community.”
“It allows residents to track snowplows and understand route priorities. It also helps the community see the scale and complexity of winter operations and shows how the city is actively managing winter road operations throughout the winter season.”
More information about snow removal in the City of Peterborough, including a link to the interactive map, is available at peterborough.ca/snow.
