Culture

How 311 Apps Make Winter a Bit More Bearable

In Philadelphia, residents can request on-demand plowing and salting after snowfalls.
A family tries to push out a snow-bound car after a winter storm on January 24, 2016, in Philadelphia.AP Photo/Matt Slocum

When the East Coast got pummeled by a recent snow storm, Philadelphia’s 311 call center staff settled into work amid a flurry of messages. One morning, as 40 employees reached for the phones at 6 a.m., there were already more than 300 callers holding on the line, Philly.com reported.

Wait times at call centers ticked up all along the Eastern seaboard as residents worried about navigating slick and slushy streets. (A 311 center near Bethesda, Maryland, received more than 2,200 calls within a 30-minute window.) In Philly, though, the department also fielded 8,000 requests for plowing and salting submitted through a widget within the Philly311 app.