Civic News

Baltimore County has a new app to track snow plow progress

The Storm Route Status Map offers a color-coded system to track whether a road was plowed after snowfall.

Snow. (Photo used under Creative Commons 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons user BenFranske)

Baltimore County government released a new app this month where residents can see whether or not a street was plowed after a snowfall.

The app is called Storm Route Status Map, and county residents can find it on the county government website.

“ The new online tool is another step in increasing government transparency and will improve the quality of experience we provide residents,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in a statement. “By providing this information more efficiently, we can help the public better understand where we are working and do more to keep the public safe during storms.”

The new app will provide county residents information regarding salting and plowing of individual snow routes. The status of each route will be represented by a color-coded system:

  • Red: Salting and plowing have not started.
  • Yellow: Crews at work.
  • Green: Operations have been completed
  • Gray indicates no county salting or plowing service is available.

The data for the Snow Route Status Map comes from the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. Local work crews send reports to supervisors, who then log their progress. Snow plowing times vary by snowfall event, according to the County.

It’s the latest example of government using digital tools to get plow info out to the public. Last year, the State Highway Administration released an app called STORM which offers the ability to enter an address, and see where the state -owned snow removal vehicles are operating in the state.

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