Inaccuracy reporting

[derekeder]

Now that the front end display issues have been largely resolved #7 we can start accepting and investigating path inference bug reports.

@evz and @mapmeld I believe you noticed some inaccuracies around Dec 13-14. Could you elaborate?

[mapmeld]

For the Dec 10-11 storm there are multiple gaps in a stretch of Lawrence Ave which I know gets plowed.

[evz]

OK. Looks like the storm that happened over the weekend is not yet in the archive so I can't make a fancy screenshot like @mapmeld but here's what I observed on Saturday the 14th. My son and I were coming home at just before 2pm and we saw a plow drive past the block in front of our place. I made note of the plow ID so I could check the accuracy of the map later. When we came up to the house, I checked the map right away and unsurprisingly didn't see the block in front of my place marked as plowed. However, the same plow had plowed the street that was one block south of me and the time seemed about right (about 1:30pm or so). A bit later in the afternoon (probably about 4pm), I checked the map again and noticed that the block in front of my place was still not marked as plowed. However, the block just west of me had been marked as plowed but the time was about an hour and a half off. So, even though we saw that plow go by at just before 2pm, the map indicated that it was plowed at about 3:30 or so (by the plow with the ID which I made note of when we were walking up). The street I live on is one way so it's pretty unlikely that that block would have been plowed on a separate pass later on (not to mention that we kinda saw it coming from that block when we were walking up).

Another thing I noticed about the plow as it went down my block is that it was going pretty quick. I wouldn't be surprised if that plow made it all the way down to the next major street and turned the corner before it's GPS doo-hickey sent another signal to the mothership which, I suspect, would mess with the accuracy of the path inference. Anyways, just a theory. Once the storm from the weekend is in the archive, I can get a bit more specific with the times, etc.

[derekeder]

@evz @mapmeld awesome thanks.

For spot-checking the map, the Fusion Tables version is super unreliable (more on why). I'm actually thinking of dropping the whole past storms page since its pretty much useless.

Anyways, use these in CartoDB:

• Dec 10-11: we don't have a good map
• Dec 13-14: http://cdb.io/19D2n1F
• Dec 16: http://cdb.io/19D2z0T
• Dec 17: http://clearstreets.cartodb.com/tables/8961/public/map

@evz grab yer screenshot there.

[mapmeld]

Looks like one of those has my part of Lawrence Ave plowed, and the other two not. I'll pay closer attention next time and see whether it matches the actual situation.

[derekeder]

@mapmeld @evz looks like we're getting some snow this weekend. keep your eyes peeled!

http://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/weekend-snow-chicago-suburbs-236737771.html

[evz]

@derekeder I thought you were in Phoenix...

[derekeder]

@evz yes I'll joyfully be running the clearstreets show from my secret winter getaway

[derekeder]

All right! We have a pretty good run going now (11pm Dec 24 - now). If you notice wrongness, lemme know!

For Dec 22, we had some data issues, so probably not the best to test on.

[derekeder]

Just saw plow S11613 go by at 9:25am on 1/6 and it hasn't shown up on the map after 15 minutes:

[derekeder]

From email:

My street 1422 w Thorndale by Senn shows the street was plowed, but it is not. Please have some plow as soon as possible. Thank you.

[derekeder]

Think we may need a clearer message that we aren't affiliated with the City. Another email:

I just wanted to inform you that the street where I live on Pulaski and 55th place has a lot of frozen snow stuck to the pavement and if it could be possible to have a snow plower to come pass by and remove the snow and throw some snow. Thank you so much for you time and effort on keep the city safe.

[derekeder]

Can you please clean the surrounding area o henry clay school! 13231 S Burley Ave, Chicago, Il 60633. And 133rd street in the same area. Thank you

[derekeder]

The streets in my area are horrible, and the fact the the streets of sanitation depth makes it even worse, they sit there in the plow trucks drinking coffee doing nothing while people can't drive down the side streets because of the snow, it's bee 4 days since it snowed last, why aren't they clearing the streets?

[derekeder]

updating the messaging on the home page in d504725a685fe0a01296e147edb52b24e73e11c1

[derekeder]

I live at 4634 N. Kelso, Chicago, IL. It says that a plow came down my street on 1-6-14 @ 4:29pm. It did one street by me, but not my street. We have all been waiting for it. So the plow that says that they did it, did not.

[mapmeld]

According to ClearStreets West Lawrence Ave wasn't plowed. But it was.

[mapmeld]

And again this storm:

I'm trying to come up with an explanation for the same error to keep occurring. We have a lot of construction on the middle and sides of the street... is it possible that a different department or contractor is handling snow removal instead of the usual city plows?

[derekeder]

@mapmeld so this is pretty interesting. I've been digging in to the GPX data to spot check a few locations. This is what I get for the Dec 8th storm:

The issue isn't our path inference, its that there aren't any plow observations for the side streets in that area.

I think you should call your alderman. That's the 47th? Pawar?

[fgregg]

@mapmeld is saying that west lawrence avenue was, in fact, plowed, but it is not showing up as plowed. The image that @derekeder just posted shows a couple of observations on west lawrence avenue.

@derekeder, why do you think the issue is not in our path inference?

[derekeder]

@fgregg ok you're right. I don't have all the GPX traces for the current storm, but this is what we have from the Jan 31 storm Nick also took a screenshot of:

Probably is a path inference issue.

[derekeder]

Hi! I live on south Winchester ave. Between 35th St & 36th street and I'm pretty sure I saw a plow truck come down my street today but it looks like this is not showing on the map. Just wanted to let you know in case something wasn't working right.

[danxoneil]

I've been following this issue here on Github and I've been fascinated by the approach to addressing it. The best thing about these messages from users is that by the time they've written you an email, they're deeply engaged in a civic action-- trying to discover why a particular function was not taken by their government on their particular block.

As civic hackers, it seems that these are our people-- exactly the ones we want to be involved with. What's the email response back to the resident that comes from ClearStreets?

This also relates to #15 and #16.

[derekeder]

We politely responded that we weren't associated with the city and that we would use their feedback to improve the accuracy of ClearStreets.

With the NBC 5 Investigates story out there, we may be able to do something more pro-active with #16.