Making Austin 311 Service Requests More Efficient

Austin 311: Who they are, Where they operate, What they do

Living in a large metropolitan area, reporting issues such as potholes, traffic light outages, and graffiti can be a confusing task. Austin, TX has made the process simple by providing residents with a single point of contact for requesting city services. Austin 311 is a one stop shop for reporting issues and requesting services from the city. Residents can call, email, and use the mobile app to reach 311 ambassadors who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.?

My team and I analyzed 311 data from January 2014 through mid-September 2024 in order to understand how Austin might best allocate resources to handle future trends and changes in how 311 is utilized. Our inquiries broke down into three major categories: what services are being requested, how service requests have changed since 2014, and which areas are generating service requests. This article will take you through our process, results, and recommendations for Austin’s 311 services.

Dataset & 311 Services

Before moving into what was included in our data, it’s important to know that Austin 311 covers areas well outside of Austin’s city limits. Including towns as far north and south as Georgetown and Dale and going from Marble Falls in the west to Elgin in the East, 311 covers the Greater Austin Metropolitan Area. A map with a reference to where the Capitol Building is located can be found below.

Our dataset contained close to 2 million individual 311 calls, which included over 300 types of service requests. For ease of analysis, we aggregated similar requests types together, resulting in 10 categories. Groupings included animal services, public safety, waste management, traffic management, environmental services, code enforcement & permits, infrastructure maintenance, public utilities, public spaces, and other. Some specific calls that might be included in these categories include vegetation control in environmental services, electric vehicle station issues in public utilities, and city specific requests in others.?

Which Service Request is the most requested??

First and foremost, so what service request is the most requested? As you can see Animal Services is the highest requested service with over 350,000 service requests in the past decade. Animal service requests are the most requested, due to a large population of pets and individuals encounters with wildlife, along with barking complaints are the most common request among Austin Area. Creeping up on Animal Services is Code Enforcement & Permits and Waste Management, reason being is because over the past decade Austin's population has had a rapid growth rate, due to the higher population in Austin skyrocketing it has been more of a common trend to see more pollution and littering issues being faced. So, individuals make these requests to make sure the city is well maintained and regulations are being followed. Other issues like Public Utilities aren’t requested as much due to the city's high regulation of water and electricity. These are essentials for the citizens of Austin, so the city itself does its best to maintain the needs of individuals and families.

Now let’s dive into which areas seem to face issues and the trends that are involved within these areas.

Where are services requested?

Unsurprisingly, 311 requests are more likely to occur around Interstate 35 (I-35) as this is a major highway running through the area. Areas around I-35 include Downtown Austin, several college campuses, and a significant commercial and residential population. Dark blue areas indicate 0.6250 service requests per 1000 people while orange indicates 0.0034 service requests per 1000 people. This change in frequency is about a 1,800% increase from the periphery of the 311 area towards I-35. This clearly shows that Austin must concentrate its resources closer to home.?

In terms of what type of service is being requested, in 89% of zip codes, the dominant type of request is animal services, which includes services such as concerns for the care of a pet, reporting an animal bite, and caring for a lost or abandoned pet. Breaking this further down, while there are 42 unique requests within the animal services category, our analysis revealed that 5 services were more likely to be requested.?

Moving from the center outwards, we found that concerns for the care and well-being of a pet, need to create an animal bite report, assistance requests from animal control or protection, and reporting a found animal without its owner were the most frequent animal services. For all requests, a representative from Animal Protection or the Pet Resource Center will contact the resident within 3 days.?

When thinking about staffing recommendations for Austin 311, my team and I identified a need to ensure collaborating organizations, like Animal Protection and Pet Resource Center had the staff necessary to handle the expected quantity of service requests moving forward. This need became especially apparent when we compared the average number of days it took to resolve an animal related 311 call to the average resolution speed. Animal services took an average of 42 days to be resolved, while the overall average was roughly 30 days. While resolution speed is affected by extenuating circumstances, such as the ability to contact a pet’s owner, this week and a half difference could certainly be shortened by increasing the number of representatives available to process and complete 311 calls.?

Service Request Across the Years

To further inform staffing recommendations for Austin 311, we analyzed how service requests have evolved over the years. Additionally, we investigated seasonal trends to identify periods of increased demand, helping us better understand the timing and intensity of service needs.

From 2014 to 2024, there has been a steady rise in service requests. However, two notable exceptions occurred: a sharp decline in 2020 and a significant spike in 2023. It’s important to note that our 2024 data only includes entries through September 24, so the final count for the year will be higher once complete.

The drop in 2020 can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarantine measures led to fewer people calling 311, as residents stayed home more often. This reduction was most noticeable in animal services, historically the most common type of request, since fewer people were out interacting with pets and wildlife.

In contrast, 2023 saw a dramatic increase in service requests, primarily driven by a 10-fold surge in Environmental Service Requests. Upon further investigation, we discovered that 72% of these requests were related to storm debris collection, concentrated during the winter following a severe ice storm in Austin.

We also compared this pattern between East and West Austin, finding that East Austin experienced a higher increase in service requests than West Austin.

Seasonal Trends

In terms of seasonal patterns, we found that spring and summer consistently see the highest spikes in service requests, with summer leading the way.?

Spring and Summer are the two seasons with the highest spike of Service Requests, with summer being the highest. The team analyzed whether this was true to all different types of Service Requests.

Interestingly, this trend holds true across most service request types, with two notable exceptions: Environmental Services and Public Utilities. Environmental Services saw an outlier spike in 2023 due to storm debris collection, while Public Utilities requests are generally more common in summer and fall.

Resolution Time for Service Request

Something this team was especially interested in exploring was how the legacy of east vs. west Austin might impact the resolution speed of 311 calls. Austin has segregated African American and other minority racial/ethnic communities to east of I-35. Today the area still sees predominantly African American and Latino populations and overall has a lower median income than west Austin. Knowing that unconscious biases could affect service requests, we looked at what the numbers told us.

In order to see how income affects closing time, we pulled median household income data from a 2022 Austin Demographics dataset. We calculated high, median, and low income based on the Median Family Income of Austin. Low income households bring in > $68,000, median income was household income between $69,000 & $93,000, and high income was categorized as anything greater than $94,000. Using these groupings and controlling for service type, we compared the average resolution time in days.?

We found that high income neighborhoods saw 311 resolutions in about 36 days, medium income waited 41 days, and low income areas had to wait 44 days until their request was resolved. Across all three income groups, the average time to resolution was 40 days, but we see a stark difference between high and low income. Using the map below, we can see that lower income areas are clusters east of I-35 (black line), which is congruent with the income distribution of this area.?

Whether intentional or not, we can see the impact of Austin’s history with segregation in the time it takes the city to resolve 311 requests.?

Now let's take a look at which service requests seem to be prioritized the most.

Which service requests seem to have a faster close time??

Interestingly enough, based on the data we can entail that Code Enforcement & Permits and Waste Management are the services that get the most attention; which raises the question why? Well Austin is doing it’s best of aligning their morals and values when it comes to being named the Greenest City in Texas. Prioritizing issues such as pollution and littering is a way for Austin to keep its standards to where they want to be, making sure they maintain a sanitized and organized city to attract tourism especially around the fall where world wide events such as Austin City Limits (ACL) and Formula 1 take place. On that note, the city of Austin also wants to ensure that state and local laws, codes, and ordinances are followed; creating an environment that is more welcoming and enjoyable for locals and outsiders.??

However, on the other hand, environmental services and infrastructure management typically take longer due to the limited number of individuals who can go out and perform these tasks in a timely effective manner such as floods, drainage and tree issues, erosion, potholes, street and road maintenance. These issues take planning and time to get it organized and ready to go, but also mother nature is mother nature and at times she isn’t on our side so weather conditions also come into effect when the request has been delayed.??

As cities continue to enhance their 311 service systems, it's important to understand how residents are choosing to interact with these services. In our city, multiple channels are available for submitting requests, but some methods stand out more than others.

The majority of 311 service requests in our city are made through traditional phone calls, accounting for 71% of all submissions, indicating that direct communication is still highly preferred by residents. However, Spot 311, a centralized digital platform, is growing in popularity with 21% of requests, showing a shift towards more modern reporting tools. Meanwhile, the web interface accounts for 4.5% of requests, providing an additional online option for residents who prefer submitting their concerns via the city’s portal.This data highlights how traditional phone calls still dominate, but newer digital methods are gaining traction. As cities continue to evolve technologically, we expect a further shift towards mobile and web-based reporting.

By analyzing the methods residents use to submit 311 service requests, we gain valuable insights into where the city should focus its efforts. Understanding these trends allows for better decision-making when it comes to allocating resources, ensuring that the most effective and widely used channels are supported and that emerging methods have the potential for growth.

Recommendations & Conclusions

Based on our analysis, the team recommends that Austin 311 focus its resources in areas surrounding I-35, as this region consistently generates the highest volume of service requests. Special attention should be given to animal services, which are the most frequently requested, requiring ample staff to handle the steady demand. A good idea would be to collaborate with organizations, like Animal Protection and Pet Resource Center, which have the staff necessary to handle the expected quantity of service requests moving forward.

Additionally, since phone calls remain the most common method for submitting service requests, with 71% of submissions made this way, we advise increasing the number of representatives available to answer calls. This will help ensure that the city can maintain an efficient response rate as call volumes grow. On that note, with our findings it’d be best to make sure the city of Austin is well equipped with individuals and groups that are able to go out and complete these tasks and issues to decrease the delay in close time for all service types.?

Finally, Austin 311 should prepare for seasonal spikes in service requests, particularly during spring and summer, when the overall volume tends to peak. By aligning staffing and resources with these seasonal trends, the city will be better equipped to manage fluctuations in demand and provide timely services to its residents.

To explore the dataset and our visualizations, please find our Tableau workbooks linked here: Area Analysis, Time Analysis, Service Request Analysis