City of Kingston launches online snowplow tracker as part of Smart City pilot

Posted in: New Initiative

Date Posted: 2020-01-14

Organization Name: City of Kingston

You can now track the progress of some of the city’s snowplows at CityofKingston.ca/Snow.

The Snowplow Tracker – an online map showing a select number of plows clearing main arterial roads – is part of a larger nine-month Smart City pilot the city has developed in partnership with Bell.

“The Smart City pilot is all about leveraging technology to improve residents’ quality of life,” said Mayor Bryan Paterson. “This pilot will give residents the opportunity to see our snow clearing efforts in a new and exciting way.”

During this pilot phase, the Snowplow Tracker map will feature some plows on main roads such as Princess Street, Division Street and Gardiners Road. Different colours on the map indicate when a road was last plowed. When a plow is in motion clearing main roads, it will send frequent data that will be displayed on the map.

Plows clearing residential areas are not shown on the pilot Snowplow Tracker map, but remain actively working during winter weather events.

“Services like the Snowplow Tracker map delivered over Bell’s Smart City Platform illustrate how Internet of Things technology can improve City services for residents,” said Gary Semplonius, Bell Senior Vice President. “We look forward to future opportunities with Kingston to implement a broad range of solutions that leverage Bell’s advanced fibre and wireless networks to enhance city operations.”

The Smart City pilot, which runs until Sept. 2020, will introduce smart technologies across the city. The City of Kingston entered into a partnership with Bell for the Smart City pilot in February 2018.