Transcript: Mayor Adams, DSNY Commissioner Tisch Announce Next-Generation Technology to Enhance Snow Operations in Preparation for Winter Season

December 14, 2023

Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Department of Sanitation: Thank you for being here to talk about two of my great passions: snow removal and technology. As the former chief information officer of New York City, this is something of a return to my roots. And I know that Mayor Adams cares deeply about making sure that our disaster response utilizes the latest technology whenever possible, so I'd like to first thank First Deputy Commissioner of Emergency Management, Christina Farrell, for being here today with us, and now turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much, commissioner and deputy commissioner. You know, technology, technology, technology, and I think that's why that's why the commissioner and I are aligned, because not only in her role as the commissioner of DSNY, but even while she was at the NYPD, some of the most forward thinking technology that was used is still being used to keep us safe, she was responsible for. And I cannot thank you enough for both roles.

It's clear that the unpredictability of the snow season is going to need us to use technology to move us forward in a real way. And I often say, if you don't inspect what you expect is all suspect, and that is what we feel the forecasters are predicting, a snowy winter. We're revolutionizing how we tracked our snow operations and using technology to keep New Yorkers safe.

I'm proud today to announce BladeRunner 2.0, our state of the art software which allows us to better track and support our fleet of approximately 5,000 vehicles across all five boroughs. With BladeRunner 2.0, we'll be able to track real‑time progress more efficiently, deploy our plows and salt spreaders to keep the snow and ice off our streets so that the city that never sleeps will never have to be stalled due to a snowstorm.

And the beauty of this technology is that we're going to do it in a fair and equitable way. No more systems of first, second and third tier streets in which different communities receive different levels of services. And we used to hear that all the time on dealing with why certain streets were plowed better. Well, we're going to equalize it and make sure that powerful road of equitable distribution of our resources in real time with assistance.

Now, every street in all five boroughs is on a plow and salt route, and services will be activated as soon as they're needed no matter where you live, because we can't live can't and can't see snow plows on the Upper East Side and not in Brownsville, not in East New York. We must make sure that all of our streets, with all of our pedestrians, with all of our citizens receive fair distribution of resources.

Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe and to have their streets rapidly and efficiently plowed when snow storms come. And the Department of Sanitation also has their highest headcount ever. Our city is ready to use technology and people to power to get the job done, but we need your help to do it as well. We say this every time a snow storm hits: when the snow starts falling, the best thing New Yorkers can do to help us get the roads clear is to stay off them.

And we're really asking everyone to participate, because this is predicted to be a severe snowstorm season. If you have to travel, use mass transit so BladeRunner 2.0 and our fleet of salters and plows piloted by New York City's strongest can get the job done and get it done efficiently.

And as we head into this winter season, we want everyone to sign up for NotifyNYC. It is a major way to stay informed of any emergency activities in the city. So, while BladeRunner 2.0 and our strong Department of Sanitation team is operating, you could do your role by staying off the streets, being informed, so we can move forward in a fluid manner. Commissioner, again, thanks so much, and you want to give us a run through, right?

Commissioner Tisch: Yes. Okay. Amazing. Thank you. All right, thank you, Mayor Adams.

We prepare for snow year round, and even without measurable snow last year, we have never stopped training or upgrading the tools at our disposal. The upgraded BladeRunner 2.0 system you are going to see today is just one of the pieces of equipment that supports our snow fighting operation.

We have over 5,000 vehicles at our disposal, including 3,200 that can plow and 700 that can spread salt. Days before the first flakes fall, we are in touch with our meteorological vendors getting the latest forecasts and preparing to deploy resources. We have over 700 million pounds of salt on hand this winter and we are prepared to combine longstanding best practices with the latest innovations.

Now I'm going to demo one such innovation for you, we call it BladeRunner 2.0, our substantially updated, world‑class snow fighting tool. I am joined today by Superintendent Mike McLean from our operations management division. The purpose of today's demo is to give you just a little flavor of how the system helps support our snow clearing and salt spreading operations.

We are going to start by showing you how in real time we can track are spreading in plowing progress on the city‑wide, borough and district levels. For purposes of the first part of this demo, we are using GPS data from our plows and our spreaders collected over the past several days as part of our snow training preparations; obviously, when we are true snow fighting mode the data will be coming in in real time.

The map that you see on the screen is color coded to show percent of streets plowed by district. Red and orange indicate the lowest completion percentages, blue and green the highest. Here you can see up in Northern Brooklyn we are making great progress with the percentage of streets complete in the 50 to 70 percent range. You can see it right here.

We have some work to do in Eastern Queens where comparable percentages are in the 20 to 40 percent complete range, you can see that in yellow and orange. Again, this is mock data, but if we saw this from our command center or if our supervisors saw it from their phones in a real snowstorm, you can be sure that we would be on the phone with our supers in Queens East 8, 12, 7, 11, 10 getting more plowing assets out the door.

If we want to see the same type of data for our salt spreading operations as compared to our plowing operations we can track that, too, and we've just updated the map to show that.

The next thing that I'm going to show is how street by street and route by route we can track plowing and/or spreading progress— more specifically, we can see how long it's been since the last time one of our snow fighting vehicles addressed a given street.

For purposes of this part of the demo we sent out our spreaders yesterday to portions of Bronx 1; in particular, to the Mott Haven and Melrose sections. Here you will see tracks in two different colors. The purple represents those streets hit by a spreader yesterday in the north and east of the district. The red represents those that were not hit. Obviously, if this was a real storm we would not be interested in streets and routes hit yesterday, we could set the time range to the past zero to one hours, one to three hours, there to six— you get the idea.

Finally, for this last part of the demo, I am going to show you how we can track an asset— a salt spreader, in this case— in real time. For purposes of this part of the demonstration we have a spreader out in the field right now in Queens West 5 reporting its GPS data to our BladeRunner 2.0 system.

The salt spreader is driving through parts of Ridgewood this morning. Here we see the spreader, which started in our Queens West 5 garage, came across Metropolitan Avenue, down Forest and on to its route in Ridgewood. What we also see is that this asset has completed its assigned route and is prepositioned awaiting additional orders.

I hope that this demo gave you a nice flavor of what this system can do. As I mentioned earlier, it will support our snow response, but the actual greatest snow fighting tool in our city is the people of the sanitation department. Their years of experience, their passion for service and their commitment to getting the job done will always be the backbone of the city's snow response.

So, why is this snow season different from all other snow seasons? Three main reasons. First, as the mayor mentioned, we're headed into this snow season with more sanitation workers then we have had at this department in decades; and, approximately 600 more than we had the last time that this department had to meaningfully fight snow.

And we've bought almost a half a billion worth of new trucks since that time, too. And third, this new updated BladeRunner system means we will be better prepared to track our response and pivot as needed.

New Yorkers have come to a level of service from this department unmatched anywhere else on earth. They know that we're preparing year round for winter, that we're on the streets before the first flake falls, and that we don't stop until every street is clear. While everyone else is enjoying a winter wonderland, our sanitation workers are working 12‑hour shifts every day to get the city running again.

I want New Yorkers to know that whether this winter sets records for snowfall or ends up another bust, we will be ready. We won't let any part of the city down. Thank you all, and I look forward to take any questions if you have any.

Mayor Adams: It's a good thing, that means we did a good job.

Question: I guess I just wonder were there cuts to agencies across the city, if that will impact snow removal this season.

Commissioner Tisch: Nope. There are no cuts in the PEGs to snow removal operations; in fact, this system represents a major investment that this administration has made in our snow plowing efforts. And as I mentioned, we are headed into this snow season with the highest headcount of sanitation workers that we have had in decades and 600 more than the last time we fought snow.

We also, over the past year and a half, have bought half a billion worth of new sanitation trucks, those trucks double as plows. And we've also made significant investments in our salt spreaders.

Finally, one point that I didn't mention before is we've also made big investments in the equipment that we use to clear snow from bike lanes, and the bike lanes are going to be a very meaningful part of our snow clearing operations this year for the very first time.

Question: Will the average resident be able to see if the trucks are coming or...

Commissioner Tisch: Yes. There's a public portal that's called PlowNYC. And it doesn't give all of the information that you see in this system, it's really designed for what the residents want to see. And so they can see how long it's been, through that portal, since a plow has hit their street.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good job. Good stuff.