When a couple of inches of snow fell a few weeks ago in Washington, D.C., the new mayor took some heat – as mayors often do – for the poor condition of the city streets.

Now Chicago, New York and Seattle are among the cities to have smartphone apps that can be used to track snowplows in real time using GPS data, according to an AP report.

It is “a way to show skeptics that plow drivers are working hard and not just clearing the streets of the wealthy and well-connected,” the report says.

But the data can be misleading. One woman in Chicago said the app indicated a snowplow had gone down her street. It had … but the plow had its blade up.