Cambridge map shows snowplow status

CAMBRIDGE — The City of Cambridge has started posting a map on its website that makes it possible for residents to see which streets have been recently plowed.

“It basically shows roughly how far back in time the plow unit has been on a particular section of road,” said Gagan Sandhu, the city’s roads operations manager. “It is all colourcoded.”

Green indicates a plow has been by in the last four hours. Blue means the last four to 12 hours. Red means within 12 to 24 hours. Grey indicates greater than 24 hours.

Colours are also used to indicate which roads are the greatest priority for city plows, in the event of significant snowfall.

The map can be viewed on the city’s website (bit.ly/2CF3sLR). The map, currently in the pilot stage, allows residents to see where plows have been to better gauge when they should be coming to their area.

It is updated every 15 minutes or so.

The data is collected when plowing operations for a snow event or significant snowfall begin. Plows are tracked using global positioning systems in the units for 36 hours after a snowfall ends.

“I won’t say it’s in real time because, right now, it does not show where the plow actually is,” Sandhu said. “It more shows where the plow was in a certain time window.”

The map feature does not show which streets are due to be plowed next.

Cambridge’s road network is divided into 22 plow routes. Sandhu said a couple of spare plows are kept in case of breakdowns.

Kitchener and Waterloo do not offer similar plow update maps on their websites.

Sandhu says residents can let the city know if the new snow plowing maps are useful by filling out a survey form on the city’s website (bit.ly/2AxQESn).

“What do they want to see more, what do they want to see less,” he said.

“We’ll go from there after a good analysis of consolidated feedback at the end of the weather season.”