Who uses FixMyStreet?

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We hope that’s a question that is hard to answer, since FixMyStreet was built for everyone – or rather, anyone who wants to report a street problem to their council. Computer whizz or internet newbie, one-off reporter or serial council communicator, FixMyStreet is for you.

All the same, we wanted to chat to someone who uses FixMyStreet regularly, to find out more about how they see the site, and whether it makes a difference. So…

Meet Steve, from Exeter.

Steve’s been using FixMyStreet almost since it launched, in March 2007:

FixMyStreet user Steve LeeI’m not sure how I heard about it – it’s lost in the mists of time, but it was pretty soon after it went public.  I see from your archives that I first reported a problem in July 2007, but I’m sure I knew about it before then.

 

As a board member for Schoolforge I was always searching for UK open source projects for education, and that’s probably where I came across it initially.

FixMyStreet can be used to report any street problems to the council – it’s most commonly used for potholes, broken streetlights, fly tipping, etc. But every user has their own concerns. What does Steve tend to report?

It’s usually road-related, as I used to push /walk the kids to school when they were young, and I cycle around a lot.

 

So potholes, traffic lights not responding to bikes, broken street lights, bad signage, low hanging vegetation… I think I reported a crop of Japanese knotweed once.

You did! Here it is. And have the issues been fixed?

Many have, according to your archive. I reckon that using FixMyStreet helped raise the priority, but you never know – and that’s fine. I like to think that reports come to attention of the relevant people more quickly when you put them online where everyone can see them.

 

Also, when you see an issue in the neighbourhood, it’s easy to assume that someone else has reported it, but as it’s so easy to ping off a report with FixMyStreet, there’s no excuse not  to play your part as a citizen.

 

I appreciate that there’s no need to find the relevant council department, website, or whatever. Just point your browser at FixMyStreet, type in a location, click on the map and type in the problem. Sorted.

 

Plus if others have used it to report the same issue, you’ll see straight away.

Steve’s noticed an improvement in the way that councils interact with FixMyStreet reports.

I can’t vouch for how fast they get fixed, but at least I usually get an email response from the council to acknowledge receipt.

 

These have improved over the years too, indicating that the council have sorted their processes to better incorporate FixMyStreet reports.

Does Steve ever browse FixMyStreet to see what has been reported in his local area? Or subscribe to email alerts?

Very rarely, but it is interesting to see what’s been going on. When you report a problem, the process shows you issues that have already been reported in the same area, so you don’t need to browse first as a separate step.

And some final thoughts…

It’s well thought out and easy to use. I especially appreciate that I don’t have to create an account as a first step to reporting a problem: more sites should use a lazy login like this. FixMyStreet has slowly improved over the years; the most noticeable thing is the improved maps.

 

Also, it’s open source and that is important for such civic software. I don’t know if you get much open development with others contributing, but I do suspect that others use the code.

Yep, they sure do. FixMyStreet Platform is the place to look for that activity, where there’s also a link to our mailing list. The most significant contributions come from people in other countries who are setting up their own version – FixMyStreet in Norway, for example.

Thanks very much to Steve for telling us about how he uses FixMyStreet. 

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This post is part of a mini-series, in which we’ll be chatting to people who regularly use mySociety’s websites.

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