"Fix the city" (Tvarkau miestą) - city problem registry platform & application
About this good practice
A few problems were addressed with this solution:
1. Lack of citizen involvement and knowledge of how the city municipality works;
2. Difficulty to report a problem and to follow how it is being solved.
The municipality of the city of Vilnius has created a platform and applications for iOS and Android for reporting infrastructure problems around the city – e.g. broken pavements, misplaced street furniture, illegally parked cars, etc.
Before “Tvarkau Vilnių” citizens got answers from municipal officers similar to automatic reply. The initiated practice was expected to provide shorter and less bureaucratic replies and encourage more action in problem-solving with the set date when the problem has to be solved. All replies and solved problems appear on the website where everyone can see and track them, and this gives transparency for all decisions made by city municipality and its employees.
A problem on the platform could be registered either from a verified user or anonymously, which attracts more people to use it and get involved in the city’s life. It is quite simple and has just a few fields that have to be filled: problem description and address (you can also select on the map), selecting the type of problem and uploading pictures (not necessary). Different types of problems can be registered including cycling infrastructure, street maintenance, public spaces (and street) lighting, and many others.
Resources needed
The platform was developed by the IT department of the Vilnius‘ city municipality and it cost approx. EUR 30,000.
All costs were the salary of employees who developed the platform. The cost for integration of other 5 cities was EUR 15,000. A yearly cost of the maintenance – EUR 5,000.
Evidence of success
More than 9000 unique users and almost 82.000 registered problems since 2012. The numbers of registered problems grow each year which shows that the platform is becoming more popular and citizens feel more involved. The growing numbers are challenging, but does increase the efficiency in the work process. Average problem-solving time in Vilnius decreased to approx 14 days.
The platform has also recently been adopted by three other cities in Lithuania
Potential for learning or transfer
The same platform was recently adopted in three other Lithuanian cities: Alytus, Panevėžys and Šiauliai.
This practice is considered good because it saves citizens and municipal officers’ time, increases efficiency, citizen involvement and municipal transparency. The platform helps to see the most important problems for the citizens and to verify if the priority problems seen by the city municipalities are the same. “Tvarkau Vilnių” platform in Vilnius city municipality was the first step towards more optimised and efficient problem-solving, it helps to take a systemic view of the processes and make the needed changes.
Not all reported problems are solved the same year because some of them are of larger scale, however having this information the city can make more informed decisions, budgeting and change work priorities in the long term. This helps to see the city and its biggest problems from the citizen’s perspective and helps to plan and budget accordingly.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Municipal Enterprise Susisiekimo paslaugos (Transport Services)