Barcelona to introduce ground-breaking parking payment system

Barcelona (ACN).- From the 1st of September the city of Barcelona will introduce state of the art technology that will allow customers to pay for parking spaces by simply using their mobile devices. According to the Councillor responsible for Economy, Enterprise and Employment, Sònia Recasens, the application called ApparkB, will make it faster, easier and cheaper for customers to park their vehicles. It will mean that customers don’t have to go to a pay meter and it will be possible to extend the amount of parking time needed. Furthermore, users will be able to pay for exact amount of minutes that they are using a parking space, thus reducing costs. Recasens highlighted that the scheme illustrates Barcelona’s “commitment to being a Smart City”. Smart Cities are those which use technology to improve the quality of lives of its citizens in a sustainable and efficient manner, and Barcelona hopes to be a world leader. The ApparkB service will be completely free for users and will be available on Android and iPhone devices.

Other advantages of the innovative scheme are that no queuing or waiting will be involved and it will not be necessary for drivers to have spare change on them to pay through meters. What is more, all users will be reminded when their parking session is about to expire so they can renew, and thus avoid being given a fine. Recasens highlighted how while the scheme shows Barcelona’s motivation to being “a Smart City, it is also a commitment to the general public”.

The application will also be available for companies to use so that they can group numerous vehicles in a single card. This will facilitate accounting by reducing any unnecessary costs as well as by avoiding problems caused by the loss of tickets. Companies will be given a monthly statement which illustrates where and when their employees parked.

ApparkB will available in the green and blue coloured parking spaces of the city, a total of 42,000 spaces, and it is also expected to be expanded to residents only zones in the future.