Winter is finally ending in Shawnee after accumulation of near-record breaking amounts of snow and such severe storms as “The Blizzard of Oz,” on Wednesday Feb. 1.
This year, in particular, technology played an increased role in snow removal in both Olathe and Overland Park, who introduced interactive snow removal maps that Shawnee could benefit from next winter.
According to Overland Park’s website, a new snow removal map using GPS technology to track snow plow trucks with by the minute updates in impending storms was introduced this year.
With the introduction of the new maps, The Johnson County Sun reported an 80 percent increase in viewers of Overland Park’s website, so many viewers in fact that the website had to be temporarily shut down to allow its servers to recover from website views.
In Shawnee, snow removal continued about the same as in past years and operated with four less snow plow trucks, The Johnson County Sun reported.
Although the city has a Facebook page with 1,676 “likes,” as well as a Twitter page, the city could greatly benefit from a map system in addition to social networking advances to help inform and address resident’s snow concerns more quickly.
In addition to being practical, the maps introduced by Olathe and Overland Park provide surprisingly accurate information.
The Overland Park map presents a legend showing snow plow locations, priority streets and progress of roads with such labels as “Salted Only” and “Awaiting Progress.” The Johnson County Sun also reports Overland Park uses around 100 cameras to give residents real time photos of road conditions.
The Sun does not report potential costs surrounding the new system, but it seems well worth the funds, whatever they may be.
If residents are aware of where snow plows are at a relatively accurate time, they are more likely to be understanding of road conditions and more supportive of city services as a whole. It seems Shawnee would benefit from this kind of increase in communication with residents and also be able to more effectively address snow concerns, particularly in areas plowed more slowly than others.
Overland Park’s acting planning director Doug Johnson discussed benefits of the new system in The Sun.
“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from it,” Johnson said. “The map didn’t tell people when we’d get to their street, but they had the ability to see the progress being made and it gave them an idea. It gave them reassurance that we were out there working.”
In a time when technology dependency is becoming increasingly eminent, it is smart for the cities of Overland Park and Olathe to have established a system to use technology for the betterment of the city.
Shawnee snow removal ran smoothly this winter, and I commend the city for snow removal despite reduction in snow trucks.
Next winter, however, real time snow removal updates via an interactive map and tracking system would greatly benefit not only city residents, but also the city itself in the long run.
Shawnee public works director Ron Freyermuth says Shawnee is not looking into an interactive map system at this time.
“I think it would be a very good system for the city, sometime in the future, but it’s just not in the budget at this time,” Freyermuth said.
