Why Long Islanders can't track snow plows, unlike other areas in New York

During last month’s major snowstorm, residents of New York City, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Oneida County and other areas of the state could follow road-plowing progress using online maps, updated in real-time by local governments. They could compare removal neighborhood-by-neighborhood, or plan a trip and avoid getting stuck in the snow.

But not on Long Island.

Several highway departments on Long Island track plows using GPS trackers for internal use, but don't offer a public tracker.

Where they exist, officials say the tools are practical and boost public trust in government. However, Long Island officials told Newsday public trackers are too costly and would be of limited use.

Joshua Goodman, deputy commissioner at the New York City Department of Sanitation, said the PlowNYC site, launched over a decade ago, helps fight public cynicism.

"We didn't send a plow down your block? Well, you can go on PlowNYC and see when the last plow was on your block, and if there is a problem, you'll know about it at the same time we do," he said in an interview.

Suffolk County already uses GPS to track county vehicles and those of contractors, with whom they plow in tandem. spokesman Michael Martino said in an email. But creating a public tracker would not be "cost-effective," he said, explaining: "Our roadway network, though extensive, is not as interconnected as that of a town or city, which limits the overall benefit."

Nassau County also has GPS trackers on all snow trucks, according to spokesman Christopher Boyle, but he did not answer questions about the possibility of creating a public-facing website.

Likewise, Brookhaven Town — with the largest road system on the Island — does not plan to make its internal plow tracking system public, according to Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro.

State Transportation Department spokesman Stephen Canzoneri did not respond to requests for comment.

100,000 visitors during the storm on Syracuse plow tracker

In snowier upstate, officials said the trackers are a useful public service.

Public Works Commissioner Matthew Baisley said Oneida County’s plow tracker, launched in 2023, helps drivers plan in the midst of a snowstorm: "If they need to wait for us, they can delay their trip by five minutes, or leave earlier, if they look at it."

Connor Muldoon, Syracuse’s chief innovation officer, said the city’s tracker, which recorded 100,000 visitors during the recent storm, is an example of "good government."

"People can buy something on Amazon and have it delivered that same day or the next day, and government has an obligation to keep up with that sort of technological innovation," he said.

The city is considering coordinating with neighboring villages and towns, which could potentially add their road systems to one consolidated online map, he said.

Costs and other concerns

David Orr, director of Cornell University’s local roads program, said many cities and large towns already use plow tracking systems internally, even if they’re not available publicly.

The main costs are GPS transponders, which can cost a few hundred dollars per vehicle per year, and software, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, officials said. Syracuse’s costs rose when it went from an internal-only tracking system to a public-facing one a few years ago, Muldoon said. It upgraded from trackers that transpond every 30 seconds to ones that transpond every five seconds, for better accuracy.

For municipalities that already have internal trackers, Orr said making them public may require negotiating with staff or unions, since there can be concerns about employees’ privacy. To protect drivers’ safety, most existing maps update on a five-minute delay, officials said.

Losquadro said Brookhaven’s GPS trackers, installed on the town’s roughly 250 plow vehicles as well as contractors’ trucks, help him track work "and also to either validate or prove false any claim against the town," like accusations of property damage.

"We take a look and, sure enough, we took a pass at that" street, he said.

But Losquadro doesn’t believe it would be useful to allow residents to track plows because GPS systems don’t provide enough information about why plows may be delayed — like crashes or equipment malfunctions.

"The current system does not allow us to do that," he said. "For people to watch a process that they don’t have the information about in real time doesn’t really help anyone, because they don’t know that truck got hit coming around a corner and that area is down a vehicle."

Newsday’s Carl MacGowan contributed reporting.