Cities Use AI and GPS Technology to Transform Snow Removal Operations

Communities across the United States are revolutionizing winter storm response by incorporating artificial intelligence, GPS tracking, and video monitoring into their snow removal operations. The technology has helped cities reduce complaints, cut costs, and improve efficiency while providing residents with real-time updates on plowing progress.

Citizens in Syracuse, New York — the nation’s snowiest major city — used to flood complaint hotlines during winter storms, criticizing street maintenance crews even when snowplows had recently cleared their roads but fresh snowfall concealed the work.

Today, public confidence appears to be improving as Syracuse and numerous other municipalities nationwide incorporate technological advances like video surveillance, GPS tracking, and artificial intelligence into winter maintenance programs that previously depended almost exclusively on human coordination.

Syracuse pioneered the transformation of its snowplow deployment strategy, resulting in a 30% reduction in citizen complaints under the modernized approach, according to Conor Muldoon, the city’s chief innovation officer.

“People will look out their window and say, ‘Hey, you guys are doing a terrible job,'” Muldoon said. “And we can point to a public map and say, ‘Here’s all the breadcrumbs for when that plow was there.'”

Syracuse receives an annual average of 126 inches of snow each winter, exceeding any other U.S. city with a population of at least 100,000 residents. Before last week’s major blizzard that struck the Northeast, the city had already exceeded its normal seasonal total following a record-breaking 2-foot snowfall in a single day during late December.

Aiming to clear all streets within 24 hours following a storm, Syracuse collaborated with San Francisco-based Samsara in 2021 to install real-time GPS monitoring and dashboard cameras on municipal fleet vehicles, including snowplows. Combined with geographic information system mapping technology, the platform enables officials to watch live video feeds and track plow positions instantly.

Although residents cannot access the live camera feeds, they can check a publicly available map that refreshes every five minutes to display which roadways have been treated.

Samsara began integrating AI capabilities into its offerings in 2019. This winter marks the first time the company has supplied clients with video from additional cameras throughout its extensive network, enabling officials to better assess street conditions even without personnel present.

Kiren Sekar, the company’s chief product officer, described a scenario involving dispatching the nearest plow during a snow emergency in Plainwell, Michigan.

“Rather than having to sift through a list of vehicles, it can actually figure this out: ‘We’ve got Trevor in vehicle 203, 15 minutes away,'” Sekar said.

While Samsara collaborates with communities of different sizes to modernize their snowplow operations, the country’s most populous city — New York City — created its own solution.

The city’s monitoring program called BladeRunner tracks snow clearing equipment, including garbage trucks equipped with plows, while a human operator in a command center — rather than AI — examines the GPS information. Officials are considering AI implementation in the future to handle the thousands of 311 calls and digital service requests received daily.

New York City’s strategy also differs from Syracuse in that every street receives identical treatment, with each plow following a designated route during storms. Under optimal conditions, typically 99% of city streets are plowed within four hours after moderate snowfall, though this standard wasn’t quite achieved during last week’s severe storm, explained Joshua Goodman, deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Sanitation.

Goodman emphasized that all New York City streets receive equal attention, whether they are major thoroughfares or residential side streets.

“So what it does is allow equity,” he said.

With American cities and states investing more than $4 billion annually in snow removal operations, the advanced technology also helps prevent excessive plowing or salt application, which can harm the environment.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, introduced its first public snow removal tracking map this winter. The city reported enhanced plowing efficiency, reduced labor expenses, and fuel conservation, despite handling approximately twice as much snow compared to the previous year.

“This is the first year some roads have ever been treated or plowed, and that goes right back to being able to see where we need to go and if we’ve been there,” said Ross Jackson Jr., the city’s fleet operations manager.

Edison Township in New Jersey decreased its salt and brine expenditures by 35% and insurance claims by 60%, thanks to video evidence that typically proved plow operators weren’t responsible when their vehicles collided with other motorists’ cars.

Video cameras mounted on Iowa snowplows helped establish that in all but one of 12 snowplow crashes occurring in a single day, the other drivers were at fault, stated Craig Bargfrede, the state’s winter operations administrator.

“How can you not see this big orange truck with flashing lights ahead of you?” he said. “Boom, they just drive right into us.”

Kalamazoo County became Michigan’s first county to utilize turn-by-turn navigation for snowplow dispatch during storms. Rusty McClain, assistant general superintendent of the county’s Road Commission, described it as a significant efficiency enhancement.

“The old-school way of doing it, that bird’s eye view of where everyone needs to go to plow, was just in a large book with paper maps,” McClain said. “You’d have to pull over, find the page you’re looking for, call somebody on the phone and ask if they have plowed that area.”