Ever seen a problem in the street and wanted someone to do something about it? A smashed bus shelter, a blocked cycle lane, a broken traffic light? Various councils already have apps and FixMyStreet pages which allow citizens to alert them to various outdoor issues. Now TfL is upping its game with an interactive webpage called Street Care, powered by mysociety.org's FixMyStreet platform, allowing Londoners to submit issues and scrutinise those of others.
Say an errant lamppost spurs you into action. Enter a streetname, or allow the website to trace you, then click on the map to specify the precise location. There are several categories to choose from, including Roadworks, Mobile Crane Operation, Trees, Street Lighting and Road, Cycleway & Footway Defects. Provide a snappy summary of your issue, maybe upload some photos to show precisely what you mean, then provide a fuller account of what's wrong. Finish off by giving some contact details, or decide to proceed anonymously, and your civic duty is complete.
TfL should then spring into action, or at least whoever's processing the feed should forward the issue to the relevant body. Some sort of triage system is in operation, as the unseen minion decides whether your problem is actionable, urgent or for later consideration. When it works, as I've seen this afternoon, the fix can be very fast indeed.
Yesterday lunchtime somebody anonymous - not me - submitted a report about a blocked cycleway outside Mile End station. Electricity contractors are digging up the segregated lane this week, forcing cyclists to enter left-turning traffic, but without any advance notice of disruption ahead. It's precisely the kind of aberration the Fix My Street system was designed to alleviate, with the added benefit that TfL are now properly listening. Within 90 minutes a positive response was posted.
...and two hours later everything was sorted. The roadworks were still there, of course, but now with two warning signs placed in the cycleway where they always should have been. One red sign said 'Cycle Lane Closed', the other 'Cyclists Dismount'. Cyclists aren't going to dismount, obviously, but neither are they going come into close contact with a wall of barriers nobody warned them about. Job done.
Further good news comes from the Coles Crescent bus shelter in South Harrow, where "Our routine inspections had already picked up this issue and it has been resolved". A collapsed manhole near Tower Gateway was duly given a one hour deadline for urgent repair. Naughty posters of Boris Johnson stuck to a bus shelter at Bexleyheath Clock Tower on election day were deemed 'offensive' and removed. It sounds effective.
Then there are numerous issues, quite a lot of them in fact, which are listed as sorted when they probably aren't. For example a 2ft pothole with 13cm depth eastbound A406 was assigned the label FIXED when the accompanying message is actually...
A manhole overflowing, flooding TfL pedestrian subway received the similarly positive message "This will be made safe within 24 hours or sooner." but was labelled FIXED at that point, not when the work was completed. A blocked drain in Roehampton Vale was given a four hour deadline instead, but was still FIXED up front. A Sofa Dumped (in Hither Green) was tagged FIXED despite its displayed status being INVESTIGATING. And a Pedestrian “wait” button not always working in Ealing was designated FIXED in 12 minutes flat, after having been faulty for a month, despite that timeframe being technically impossible.
FIXED appears to be the default response to numerous submitted issues, when in fact all that's happened is that they've been PROCESSED. Somebody at the sharp end in customer service has taken a decision on how to respond and who to pass the problem on to, and at that point the system thinks job done. FIXED is a poor choice of label in the circumstances, especially because the Street Care website generally provides no further evidence of anything being completed. It makes for a dismissive user experience, not one that gives faith that anything's getting done.
Meanwhile it turns out that only 5% of London's road network comes under the direct control of TfL - for the rest you should be speaking to the council. For example, an overflowing litter bin in Thornton Heath generated the response "This is not the responsibility of Transport for London. However, your local borough will be able to help you." The Street Care website provides no indication as to which roads are TfL's responsibility and which are not, which means 95% of the time your issues may be mistargeted. Everything's based on the FixMyStreet platform so I think most issues are passed on to the appropriate public body, but this is rarely made clear.
And don't get your hopes up about bus misinformation. Street Care will deal with smashed shelters and tilted bus stops, but not incorrect tiles or missing timetables. Someone in Bow tried "No information stating the bus stop is closed due to diversion on route 8" last week, only to be told "Your report has been investigated by our team and unfortunately it cannot be resolved through Street Care. Please contact our customer services team on 0343 222 1234 or by using this web form who will be able to help you with this query."
Unbelievably Street Care isn't able to pass on these operational issues to TfL's Bus Stop Team, you have to do it yourself, greatly increasing the chance you won't bother. They can tell gas contractors and council works departments but they can't inform themselves, because they've co-opted somebody else's platform which doesn't mesh with their own systems. Instead you need to go direct to the longstanding form on a non-interactive bit of the website, after which the Bus Stop Team will likely spring into inaction as per usual.
So I won't be telling Street Care that the 25 tile at Bus Stop M is incorrect and has been for over a year, because it's not for that, and they wouldn't listen anyway. But if you've spotted a duff manhole cover, a malfunctioning pedestrian crossing or an obstructed superhighway, why not make a positive change to your local environment today?
