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Agendadesk; TEPublicComment; District4; District 6; District5; District8; District9; Collen, Arian; Batra Agrawal, Namrata
District3; The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan
Public Comment - Item (d)2. "Vehicle Concerns Program Status Report." - T&E 6/3 Monday, June 3, 2024 9:30:13 AM
Thank you for releasing the "Vehicle Concerns" feature within SJ 311. I am glad that the city has recognized the negative impact that vehicles, when parked/operated incorrectly, can have on the people of San Jose. My request is that the city prioritize vehicle concern types that represent immediate safety hazards, such as long-term illegal parking in bikeways, crosswalks, sidewalks, in front of fire hydrants, and in daylighting zones.
To that end, the feature should be tuned so that it is quicker and easier for residents to report these safety issues. The app currently has a dozen required interactions, spread out over seven different screens. Even for experienced SJ 311 users, filling out a "Vehicle Concerns" report can take upwards of four minutes each. When the app is difficult to use, and doesn't lead to the city taking any action, people don't want to use it. In the case of reporting illegal parking in bikeways, stopping on the side of the road for four minutes per illegally parked vehicle can put your life in danger.
Here is some specific pieces of feedback that I've heard from other cyclists who have been trying to use the "Vehicle Concerns" report:
It takes a long time to complete each entry.
Requirement to fill in information we may not know or be able to specify. E.g. color of the vehicle can be hard to judge, especially for the 8-10% of men who are red/green "colorblind" and those with other color-related visual impairments.
Trouble with getting the flag to the right location on the map, and the unwillingness of the app to accept the flag location without entering an address.
The floating "Live Chat" button gets in the way.
The app asks you to take the same picture twice. On the first screen, it requests for you to take a picture for the ALPR functionality. The app passes this picture through the ALPR and then throws away your picture. On the second screen, it again requests for you to take a picture to attach to the report.
Hard to find what you're looking for. There is no option that says "illegal parking", rather there is the harder-to-parse "Issue with how, where or how long a vehicle is parked on a city street". After selecting that, you are brought to a second page where you can select what type of illegal parking. The safety-related issues (bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, fire hydrants) are in the middle of a list of ten items, rather than being prominent at the top of the list
Every single time you want to file a report, a pop-up asks you to confirm that you are not reporting an emergency. This makes sense for first-time use of the feature, but for every single report, it is an annoyance.
When reporting illegal parking in bike lanes, an extra required pop-up is displayed, to ask you what days and times-of-day you frequently encounter illegal parking in this bike Jordan Moldow
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lane. These questions are marked as required, even though the user might not bike in that location frequently enough to know the answer.
Some have reported: "Taking pictures results in a never-ending white screen." After filling out a dozen required interactions over seven different screens, the last screen tells you, "The City of San Jose does not currently have an on-demand service for responding to reports of illegally parked vehicles." This is very frustrating to read *after* spending upwards of four minutes to fill out a report. And if you've already filed other illegal parking reports recently, this extra required acknowledgement is another waste of time. This message could be displayed after the report is submitted.
It is extremely frustrating to go through all that effort and be told that the report isn't actionable. I understand that resources are tight, and short-term illegal parking can be difficult to enforce. I also understand the benefit of collecting data and building heat maps to plan future enforcement routes.
For building heat maps, only the following information is necessary: Violation type ; Location ; License plate (optional) ; Picture (optional). The rest should not even be asked.
This simplified user experience would make it much easier, and therefore more likely, for people to use the app.
Even for reports that the city will act upon, Vehicle Type, Color, Make, and Model should not be required. The pictures and license plate should be enough.
Thank you,
Jordan Moldow
(speaking on behalf of himself, but also including some feedback from other cyclists) District 3
95112
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Agendadesk; TEPublicComment; District4; District 6; District5; District8; District9; Collen, Arian; Batra Agrawal, Namrata
District3; The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan
Re: Public Comment - Item (d)2. "Vehicle Concerns Program Status Report." - T&E 6/3 Monday, June 3, 2024 10:07:39 AM
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Here are screenshots that show off the workflow of submitting a report for an illegally parked vehicle in a bike lane, and highlighting some of the usability issues I mentioned.
Jordan Moldow
This pop-up shows up every time I want to start a report.
You are asked twice to take the same picture.
Type, Color, and Make are required questions. Often the ALPR can auto-fill these, but not always.
These questions are required, even though your GPS coordinates are already known.
Even after the pin is in the correct place, you cannot continue without manually clicking the "Search (required)" button at least once.
These questions cannot be skipped. If you close the pop-up and try to continue, it will appear again until you answer both questions.