Johannesburg - The average mobile user checks their device 150 times and launches mobile apps 10 times a day. One that almost 7 000 residents open daily is the Johannesburg Road Agency’s Find and Fix app.
The power to fill potholes and repair faulty traffic lights is in the thumbs of the app downloader.
Since the app was launched in May, it has been used to log more than 11 500 problems.
Of these, about 8 071 have been attended to and resolved, says Bertha Scheepers, spokeswoman for the Johannesburg Road Agency.
Scheepers said that with the power cuts around Joburg, traffic signal outages were the subject of most of the complaints – 1 020 – logged over the past month.
“This is a large change from the initial launch when the majority of logged incidents were potholes.”
Scheepers said the app had successfully created a partnership between citizens and the Johannesburg Road Agency.
“Find and Fix provided the latest technology that allows citizens to report any road-related defects through their smartphones.”
Last month, the app received top honours at the Microsoft Partner Network Awards 2014 held at the Inanda Club, in Sandton.
The app was developed by Enterprise Information Management solution provider Intervate.
Intervate won the Microsoft Application Development Partner of the Year Award for Find and Fix, while the Johannesburg Road Agency won the Public Sector Industry Award and the Managing Director’s Award.
The app does not support smartphones such as Blackberry, tablets and Nokia devices.
Scheepers said that with the launch of new phones with newer versions of operating systems, the agency “is constantly keeping abreast, developing the app to be compatible” with them.
She said demand had been minimal to use the app on older versions of smartphones and operating systems.
On average, 60 requests a day are logged through the app each day.
Find and Fix may be downloaded free from iTunes and Google Play.
Saturday Star