article · 2026-06-02 · ~7 min · live data

A day in the life of Philadelphia, by 311 call

By the morning rush, Philly is calling about Abandoned Vehicle. By evening, it's Maintenance Complaint. Every kind of trouble has its hour — here's the city's 24-hour rhythm in 311 calls.

Philadelphia's 311 line takes calls every hour of every day, and the texture of those calls shifts by the hour. The same city dispatcher who hears about an abandoned car at 7 AM is fielding noise-adjacent maintenance complaints by 10 PM. Looked at over a year, the rhythm of those calls is surprisingly consistent — and surprisingly readable. This is what a day in Philadelphia sounds like through the lens of the people who pick up the phone.

Across roughly 1,171,710 calls in the top dozen categories since 2024-01-01, the catch-all "Information Request" line dominates by a wide margin — most calls to 311 are not complaints at all, just questions for the city. The narrative and the chart below set Information Request aside and look only at the complaint categories, where the hourly pattern is more revealing.

From dawn to midnight

Predawn (4–7 AM)

The dominant call is Abandoned Vehicle (20% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Street Light Outage and Maintenance Complaint.
Morning rush (7–10 AM)

The dominant call is Abandoned Vehicle (22% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Maintenance Complaint and Illegal Dumping.
Midday (10 AM–2 PM)

The dominant call is Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection (20% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Maintenance Complaint and Abandoned Vehicle.
Afternoon (2–6 PM)

The dominant call is Maintenance Complaint (21% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection and Abandoned Vehicle.
Evening (6–10 PM)

The dominant call is Maintenance Complaint (20% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection and Abandoned Vehicle.
Late night (10 PM–4 AM)

The dominant call is Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection (21% of complaint calls in this band). Followed by Abandoned Vehicle and Maintenance Complaint.

The 24-hour clock

Each card below shows one category's 24-hour rhythm — a sparkline of how its call volume rises and falls between midnight and midnight. The sparklines self-normalize, so the height represents shape, not volume; the peak hour is annotated. Read across to spot which categories share a rhythm and which don't.

Information Request

peaks 4 PM · 743,668 total

Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection

peaks 2 PM · 82,145 total

Maintenance Complaint

peaks 4 PM · 80,383 total

Abandoned Vehicle

peaks 4 PM · 67,735 total

Illegal Dumping

peaks 2 PM · 49,865 total

Street Defect

peaks 3 PM · 36,837 total

Graffiti Removal

peaks 3 PM · 22,195 total

Street Light Outage

peaks 2 PM · 20,964 total

Sanitation Violation

peaks 2 PM · 18,040 total

Salting

peaks 3 PM · 17,924 total

Other (Streets)

peaks 4 PM · 17,235 total

Construction Complaints

peaks 2 PM · 14,719 total

The week, two ways

The sparkline grid hides what the week does to the rhythm. Here are two categories whose weekday-vs-weekend signatures pull in opposite directions: Construction Complaints falls off a cliff on Saturday and Sunday because the construction itself stops, while Illegal Dumping reports spike on Mondays — the weekend's discarded couches and bagged debris get reported on the way to work.

day of week × hour · since 2024-01-01

Illegal Dumping

Illegal Dumping
	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Sun	65 calls	51 calls	50 calls	38 calls	24 calls	8 calls	4 calls	4 calls	5 calls	4 calls	9 calls	68 calls	125 calls	152 calls	198 calls	174 calls	172 calls	193 calls	190 calls	150 calls	164 calls	178 calls	158 calls	112 calls
Mon	105 calls	70 calls	64 calls	43 calls	16 calls	15 calls	9 calls	10 calls	7 calls	13 calls	65 calls	188 calls	713 calls	997 calls	1,002 calls	981 calls	958 calls	893 calls	857 calls	789 calls	728 calls	556 calls	389 calls	298 calls
Tue	169 calls	107 calls	86 calls	52 calls	25 calls	9 calls	7 calls	5 calls	14 calls	59 calls	94 calls	174 calls	687 calls	918 calls	986 calls	862 calls	859 calls	848 calls	841 calls	833 calls	682 calls	587 calls	401 calls	261 calls
Wed	194 calls	141 calls	77 calls	78 calls	30 calls	14 calls	5 calls	16 calls	5 calls	19 calls	82 calls	177 calls	629 calls	890 calls	955 calls	886 calls	906 calls	1,056 calls	708 calls	869 calls	695 calls	497 calls	391 calls	256 calls
Thu	180 calls	160 calls	112 calls	44 calls	56 calls	36 calls	6 calls	37 calls	38 calls	27 calls	91 calls	180 calls	585 calls	879 calls	907 calls	857 calls	775 calls	738 calls	690 calls	699 calls	578 calls	462 calls	334 calls	222 calls
Fri	141 calls	73 calls	56 calls	47 calls	21 calls	10 calls	5 calls	5 calls	10 calls	12 calls	53 calls	163 calls	568 calls	772 calls	844 calls	740 calls	812 calls	727 calls	624 calls	626 calls	515 calls	424 calls	267 calls	176 calls
Sat	128 calls	98 calls	64 calls	57 calls	19 calls	4 calls	4 calls	3 calls	10 calls	6 calls	21 calls	67 calls	123 calls	161 calls	171 calls	212 calls	193 calls	192 calls	150 calls	152 calls	121 calls	126 calls	118 calls	77 calls

day of week × hour · since 2024-01-01

Construction Complaints

Construction Complaints
	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Sun	10 calls	18 calls	13 calls	11 calls	4 calls	6 calls	1 calls	3 calls	2 calls	2 calls	3 calls	5 calls	19 calls	23 calls	32 calls	34 calls	29 calls	30 calls	24 calls	27 calls	22 calls	25 calls	21 calls	19 calls
Mon	22 calls	11 calls	13 calls	9 calls	4 calls	1 calls	4 calls	1 calls	3 calls	1 calls	13 calls	19 calls	197 calls	298 calls	311 calls	294 calls	314 calls	267 calls	271 calls	250 calls	214 calls	133 calls	104 calls	85 calls
Tue	28 calls	33 calls	13 calls	13 calls	13 calls	4 calls	5 calls	2 calls	4 calls	5 calls	13 calls	31 calls	170 calls	280 calls	367 calls	316 calls	297 calls	286 calls	255 calls	263 calls	210 calls	136 calls	81 calls	77 calls
Wed	43 calls	28 calls	19 calls	8 calls	11 calls	2 calls	5 calls	4 calls	9 calls	4 calls	24 calls	35 calls	159 calls	308 calls	364 calls	310 calls	277 calls	256 calls	261 calls	235 calls	215 calls	133 calls	76 calls	54 calls
Thu	37 calls	38 calls	27 calls	19 calls	17 calls	11 calls	7 calls	3 calls	11 calls	7 calls	15 calls	30 calls	181 calls	279 calls	290 calls	285 calls	274 calls	263 calls	245 calls	239 calls	183 calls	118 calls	91 calls	49 calls
Fri	29 calls	20 calls	20 calls	8 calls	11 calls	6 calls	7 calls	4 calls	4 calls	4 calls	12 calls	31 calls	160 calls	222 calls	314 calls	284 calls	273 calls	220 calls	235 calls	223 calls	165 calls	80 calls	65 calls	44 calls
Sat	21 calls	16 calls	9 calls	15 calls	7 calls	3 calls	4 calls	1 calls	3 calls	3 calls	6 calls	22 calls	38 calls	42 calls	48 calls	57 calls	60 calls	49 calls	49 calls	36 calls	35 calls	33 calls	16 calls	22 calls

Each cell is the count of calls in that day-and-hour combination, summed across the window above. Darker = more calls. The y-axis is Sunday through Saturday; the x-axis is hour of day, midnight to 11 PM. Hover any cell for the exact count.

Holiday signatures

Specific dates leave a fingerprint on the data. The cards below show the top categories on each of these holidays, summed across 2022, 2023, 2024. Total volume is much lower than an ordinary day because city call centers run reduced hours on holidays — what these cards surface is the mix, not a "% above normal" rate.

New Year's Eve

1,326 calls · 3 yrs

#1 Information Request 697
#2 Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection 170
#3 Abandoned Vehicle 120
#4 Graffiti Removal 118
#5 Illegal Dumping 81

Easter

460 calls · 3 yrs

#1 Graffiti Removal 119
#2 Abandoned Vehicle 94
#3 Information Request 70
#4 Street Defect 68
#5 Illegal Dumping 55

July 4

545 calls · 3 yrs

#1 Graffiti Removal 123
#2 Information Request 106
#3 Maintenance Complaint 84
#4 Abandoned Vehicle 74
#5 Illegal Dumping 60

Thanksgiving

217 calls · 3 yrs

#1 Information Request 79
#2 Abandoned Vehicle 43
#3 Graffiti Removal 31
#4 Street Light Outage 16
#5 Illegal Dumping 15

Christmas

171 calls · 3 yrs

#1 Information Request 40
#2 Abandoned Vehicle 36
#3 Graffiti Removal 28
#4 Street Defect 16
#5 Street Light Outage 15

Every kind of trouble has its hour

The hourly rhythm is the city's calling rhythm, not the city's problem rhythm. Streetlight reports cluster around dusk because that's when residents notice outages on the walk home; the bulbs themselves probably burned out hours earlier. Construction complaints stop on Saturdays because the construction does, not because residents have stopped caring. Holiday call mix shifts because the people calling have shifted: less commuting, more being home. The data is legible — but the thing it's most legible about is the people on the phone.

Data Sources

Primary dataset: Philadelphia 311 service-and-information requests (public_cases_fc) via phl.carto.com. Calls since 2024-01-01, frozen at deploy (2026-06-02).

Queries: hourByCategorySql(TOP_CATEGORIES, '2024-01-01') for the 24-hour sparkline grid and hour-band narrative, dowHourByCategorySql(category, '2024-01-01') for the two day-of-week × hour heatmaps (Illegal Dumping, Construction Complaints), and holidayProfileSql(dates) for each holiday card. Baseline total comes from VIEWS.topCategories with since = '2024-01-01'. SQL builders live in src/lib/data/datasets/philly-311.ts.

Methodology & caveats: "Information Request" is held out of the dominant-by-band narrative because it's a generic catch-all that would otherwise saturate every band; it still appears in the sparkline grid. Holiday cards aggregate across 2022, 2023, 2024 (the years currently hard-coded in HOLIDAYS); Easter and Thanksgiving dates are enumerated rather than computed. For the full caveat list, see how we read the data.