PlowPHL Internal Analysis Dashboard User Guide

PROJECT SUMMARY: PlowPHL shows public users the near real-time status of salting and plowing operations during a winter weather event. The web application was launched February 18, 2021 during the 2020-2021 Snow Season, as one of four applications within the City of Philadelphia’s StreetSmartPHL web platform. StreetSmartPHL provides Philadelphians near real-time spatial information on the status of Streets Department services. The platform is built in ArcGIS Online, and uses a combination of static shapefile data, automatic vehicle location (AVL) data, and analytic coding. It has two interfaces: one public and one for staff. The staff interface – the PlowPHL Internal Analysis Dashboard – provides snow route statuses, fleet vehicle location information, and incident alert data. In addition, performance reports can be exported to communicate snapshot summaries of service at a given point in time.

The Streets Department assembles an annual Snow Season crew to remove snow and ice from public streets. This user guide advises Snow Season staff on how to use the PlowPHL Internal Analysis Dashboard to optimize our Snow Season operations.

TEAM: City of Philadelphia Transportation Analysis Unit

ROLE: Author

TOOLS USED: ArcGIS Online; Microsoft Word and Powerpoint