Council’s real time grit tracker to keep drivers on the move
Gritters will now be able to relay information
ROAD users are set to have real time displays of gritting operations across the Capital as part of a major investment to battle severe weather.
New communications systems would allow drivers to determine which roads had been treated and plan their journey, according to a new winter weather strategy by the city council.
All local authority gritters have been equipped with GPS tracking devices to give control centre staff an up-to-the-minute account of the operation.
Arrangements are also in place to install the same equipment on mini tractors clearing pavements so city residents would know which were safe to use.
Although the technology will be in place for council teams to use this winter, a version for the public is expected to take some time to design.
Council chiefs hope to roll out the technology for use with home computers and applications for devices such as iPhones and iPads in the future.
Paul Watters, head of road policy at the AA, said the move could make a huge difference to local authority operations and the public.
He said: “This measure would be incredibly useful and I’d like to think this is something other local authorities will invest in.
“I’m not actually aware of this system but I’m sure many of the winter equipment manufacturers will provide this to local authorities, so it wouldn’t take much to make it available to the public.
“Last winter in particular, when the authorities were running short on grit and salt, people would have liked to know if they could get to work or not.
“It’s the extra information that is particularly useful as you’re seeing the real activity, so drivers could make minute by minute decisions rather than chancing it.”
He added: “With all the grit and ploughing in the world, sometimes it’s not possible to keep up with the weather, so the more information road users have the better.
In his winter weather report, Mark Turley, director of the services for communities department, said communication was a key area the council could improve on, including using the microblogging site Twitter to get information to the public.
A customer hub would be set up to deal with increased calls concerning winter weather.
He also said salt stocks were at 23,000 tonnes. Last year there were just 7500 tonnes when 16,000 were needed.
A separate report also details plans to turn the city car pound on Tower Street in Leith into a depot for 7500 tonnes of salt should gritters need emergency supplies.
A spokeswoman for the city council said: “During severe winter weather, it is of paramount importance that we keep the city moving, and to do so it is vital we inform residents of which roads and streets have been gritted.
“Using GPS tracking on all of the council’s gritting vehicles enables us to better coordinate our emergency response to extreme temperatures. Once the technology has been tried and tested, we hope to be able to use the information to inform the public directly
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Weather for Edinburgh
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 15 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
barney.mcgrew
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 01:08 PMCEC are taking the good residents of Edinburgh ‘up the Council Gritter’!!!
Lord HawHaw
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 11:41 AMwill the gps show which new town streets are cleared first as usual and will they be switched of when in a councillors street and drive all in the interest of security of course
Duncan in Edinburghs Fluffer
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 07:33 PMThe roads used to be clear and gritted fine back in the 70's and 80's. So what has changed in CEC? You dont a fancy App to tell you that, I think most people know on here. Roll on May next year!
Tartancult
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 06:22 PMWhen did snow removal become so complicated?
joey in clermiston
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 04:28 PM"A separate report also details plans to turn the city car pound on Tower Street in Leith into a depot for 7500 tonnes of salt should gritters need emergency supplies." - More unbelievable nonsense from our so-called city fathers. Hasn't it occurred to them that the city car pound is likely to be, as it were, full of cars? They'll have to move all the cars out before they can put the salt in, and that will involve putting the cars somewhere else, and how can they put the cars somewhere else when the streets are all blocked up with snow?
Wotan Bickersdyke
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 04:14 PM#4 MorningsideMan - You're far too sensible to contribute to this forum. Ban him!
JumboLumbo
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 02:46 PMThere are IT developers at Fife Council who could rattle out a public-facing app in a week. I expect CEC will take a year to do something via Syntegra and will pay £250k.
edinburgh100
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 02:08 PM#4 Yes i did read the article and the GPS trackers are fitted to the trucks the trucks wont have acces to the information it wil be held be the fat controller. Who as i said sayas to the driver heres a map of the route i want you to take simple ski. No computer glitches no computer breakdown, no incorrectt info entered etc. A simple map works in all weathers and doesnt need batteries.
MeMyself&I
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 01:45 PM“Council chiefs hope to roll out the technology for use with home computers and applications for devices such as iPhones and iPads in the future.“ Oh dear, as per usual the council have it wrong. I will bet you any amount of money that a version for iphone is available before one for Android. Android will be an afterthought despite being superior to apple and used by a far great number of people – and that’s a number that is set to grow massively.
Irritatingly Intelligent Chauvinist
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 01:36 PMA more sensible approach would be to give notice of what roads are actually open. And then, the ones that are closed, open them, because the vast majority of road closures, no right turn, ahead only, etc... serve no purpose what so ever. It's usually a case of "oh, drivers are using that road. Get it closed now".
Dragonlord
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 01:10 PMInstead of wasting money telling people where the gritters are they should spend the cash on more gritters, Oh how funny they would all look if the snow doesn't come this year. Therefore they should be looking at part time systems, where all buses and council lorries have the ability to plough the roads. Systems where lorries are loaded and the cleansing dept use the grit bins and squads of cleansing dept workers get out and work instead of sitting in the vans.Trains should all be fitted with ploughs to keep lines clear not just one train a day ploughing. Weather managment is not rocket science.
MorningsideMan
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 12:38 PM#1 - did you read the article properly? They are proposing the system eventually becomes a bit like the bus tracker for the use of the public not just the council. And until then, it means the poor guys actually in the machines will know exactly which routes have already been cleared or not so they can make better decisions whilst they are out. Thats surely better than a fat controller in an office directing them without direct up to date knowledge of the situation? Eventually people will know before they leave the house which routes were freshly gritted or cleared.I think its not a bad idea, although surely common sense would mean people would already know to stick to main roads where possible? And when the snow and ice forms as quickly as it did in the last two years, no amount of gritting (doesnt work below -6 I believe?) or clearing (when its blizzarding, the ground is recovered in snow quite quickly) will work. If the winter is as bad again this year, society is just going to have to learn to cancelchange their plans rather than scream and shout that their tiny wee residential side street and pavement isn't clear whilst the council staff concentrate on hospital, school and major route clearing.
AULD REEKY
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 12:35 PMHas "Oor Jenny" and her totally incompetent Clowncillors got the armed forces organised yet for this year again - after last year;s fiasco about clearing the pavements, etc. - One more winter to go - before we bget the opportunity to "kick their axses out of office"!!! roll on May 2012.
searchanddestroy
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 12:31 PMthe situation would also be improved by getting rid of speed bumps and ensuring the road surfaces are actually flat in the first place. This would alow grittinging to be far more effective than it was last year.
edinburgh100
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 12:25 PMA bit of a non story. If the council new what they were doing they wouldnt need to use GPS to find out what roads have been gritted would they ?. Driver here is the route you are to grit tell me when its done. No GPS need.
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