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It is entirely noncontroversial to say that the snow plowing during the December 2010 blizzard in New York City was a complete failure. For days, some streets were left entirely untouched.

As a result, New York is equipping its snow plows with GPS tracking technology that is already common in Canadian snow plow fleets. These GPS tracking devices for New York snow plows will enable operators to check up on the progress of vehicles in the fleet.

Mayor Bloomberg announced the program on January 6, 2011. “It gives us the ability to check on the location and progress of our snow plows…These are only initial improvements. Certainly not the last word on the subject.”

Bloomberg’s New York government was the subject of much criticism after its lackluster response to the 2010 blizzard. In addition to GPS tracking devices being added to the fleet, the Department of Investigations is conducting an independent reviews.

The primary problem of the recent snow plowing fiasco in New York was that emergency response vehicles could not access homes. Hopefully, GPS tracking devices on New York snow plows will prevent this from being an issue in the future.

Some rumors cited in the New York Times stated that this was a deliberate slowdown in order to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s recent budget cuts. These rumors are inconclusive, however, which is why the Department of Investigations is conducting its independent review.

Article Written by Greg Minton