A simple smartphone app has been changing the way one large city is taking care of its citizens and roads, as the idea of a futurized connected city becomes more and more of a reality.
The city of Cincinnati uses an application called “Fix It Cincy!” to allow citizens to help the city take care of nuisances such as potholes and bulk item pickups. Using the app, users can pinpoint trouble spots, take photos, and send the requests to the city, which automatically generates work orders from them. In its first two years, the city processed more than 9,000 requests from the app, including graffiti removal. The Google Play store on Android devices reports that the app has been installed more than 5,000 times.
“We need everyone out there to be pothole spotters,” Cincinnati City Council member Amy Murray told WLWT. “We do not know where the potholes are until you tell us where it is.”
Some cities, such as D.C., still rely on a website reporting system, which could discourage citizens from making timely or accurate reports. With Fix It Cincy!, residents can hit a pothole, pull over, and report the location quickly and easily.
“Smartphones have transformed the way we live our lives, so it is imperative we adapt the latest technologies to make it easier to engage our citizens and solve problems,” then-City Manager Harry Black told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “This is all part of our plan to make Cincinnati the best managed city in America.”
The app also allows residents to track dates for yard waste and trash collection via their phones, which the city notes could come in handy during holiday weeks, when service is delayed or irregular.
Emily Hamilton, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, says other cities, including Boston, have begun adopting similar systems in the hope of using citizens and their smartphones to keep track of things in the city that need servicing, such as broken streetlights. More and more cities are also implementing apps that handle parking services, removing the need for physical spare change and parking meters while also giving the city the ability to maximize the spaces available for parking.
“Apps like Fix It Cincy provide a way for city governments to more efficiently collect information about what needs to be fixed, relying on residents to cover more ground than city workers could,” Hamilton said. “Compared to requiring citizens to call in or visit a government office to make their complaints known, apps may be more accessible to a broader range of residents.”
“A key benefit of the app is that it gives users a stake in seeing that the issue they reported is taken care of promptly,” she added. “It has the potential to improve government accountability by letting government workers know that a constituent is aware that a problem has been reported and that the clock is ticking on getting it fixed.”
However, Hamilton says users should be aware that using the app would most likely give the local government information on them and their devices, including location data or contact information.
“Users should be aware that when they submit an issue on an app like Fix It Cincy, they’re sharing their locational data with the government, including law enforcement,” Hamilton said. “Local governments should disclose how they’re storing this data, how long they’re keeping it, and whether or not they have the right to sell this data to third parties.”
Cincinnati’s app originally launched in 2013, and the software has been through multiple updates and refreshes to increase capability and functionality.
