In Boston, a food truck-inspired roaming City Hall van

The City of Boston’s City Hall To Go scheme is bringing civic services to residents in their neighbourhoods via a roaming van.

Government authorities have already experimented with new ways to connect to constituents, such as collecting civic complaints via a smartphone app in Rio de Janeiro. Now the City of Boston has launched its City Hall To Go scheme, which is bringing civic services to residents in their neighbourhoods. Considering that Boston is nearly 50 square miles in area, it can be difficult for some locals to travel to City Hall, located near to the coast of Boston Harbor. Inspired by the city’s food trucks, the governmental body began driving officials around in a specially-furbished van in December last year. Residents can use the van to gain access to civic services, ask questions or raise issues. Initially touring special events, the truck will be scheduling in visits to individual neighborhoods and users are invited to offer feedback, requesting features they would like to see. The video below shows the van being prepared for launch: Although many residents will continue to use the established City Hall, the new scheme shows that the government are willing to do the legwork to serve their constituency. Could this work in your region?