UCalgary researchers test city’s 311 response times

Putting the City of Calgary’s 24/7 reporting line to the test, a group of University of Calgary undergraduate students have released a report on how effective the 311 system is.

A city government class taught by political science professor Jack Lucas went into a number of communities to identify local issues like snow and ice, graffiti, streetlight maintenance, road sign issues, pothole maintenance, dead animal pickup, and debris clearance.

“We focused on the issues that were most common in the city at the time of year when we did the study which was February,” says Lucas.

The students found two issues of the same type and would only report one of them to 311. They returned to the area within 3 to 10 days to see if the problem had been resolved.

The result found issues were 26 per cent more likely to be resolved quickly when they were reported, compared to when it wasn’t.

The study also found that issues such as debris in roadways were solved quickly at a much higher rate than something like repairs to a road sign, saying it’s understandable since some issues would be tougher to solve, especially in the winter.

The research also looked at if there was a difference in more-or-less privileged communities.

“It didn’t matter where your neighbourhood was, it wasn’t dependent on the newer or richer neighbourhood getting priority,” says researcher Chris Jappert. “It was actually pretty equal across the board.”

“I think it’s a great step for people to know, regardless of where you live that your services, your complaints are treated as equal,” adds researcher Ahmed Salem.

The City of Calgary tells CityNews it welcomes the findings of the independent report, adding it provides valuable perspective.

Calgary was the first Canadian city to launch a central call centre 20 years ago and now receives more than a million requests a year with people calling in, or reporting issues online.