With their mobile phones, private vehicle users can now check information on the services offered by 300 car parks, twice as many as a year ago
The application also integrates real-time information on the availability of parking spaces in approximately 100 car parks in the city
As a new feature, SMOU allows car park operators to incorporate the app as a payment method for parking by the minute
SMOU, the leading personal mobility services application in Barcelona and the greater metropolitan area, is thus facilitating planned mobility that reduces the time spent looking for parking, congestion in public spaces and pollution
The SMOU personal mobility services application allows users to check information on the location and services of half of Barcelona’s car parks, 300
in total, twice as many as one year ago when this feature was launched following an agreement between Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona City and Province Garage Guild.
In total, the application provides information on 80,000 off-street parking spaces, 78% more than a year ago.
SMOU also incorporates real-time information on the availability of free off-street parking spaces. There are now 100 car parks in the city that offer this service thanks to the BSM application.
“Barcelona City and Province Garage Guild are working hard on this project, and the progress were are making is a clear example of how public-private collaboration can help us tackle the major challenges facing the city,” says Laia Bonet, first deputy mayor and president of BSM. “In a compact city like Barcelona, car parks have an important role to play in terms of mobility. Supporting the digitalisation of the sector is crucial, as it has a direct impact on aspects such as the planning of our routes and the reduction of the time we spend looking for parking spaces. These are issues that have a direct impact on congestion in public spaces and pollution.”
A technological solution promoting planned sustainable mobility
The parking space information and availability features will enable private vehicle users to find out, from their mobile phone, the closest available parking place to their destination. This will enable routes to be planned and simplified, thereby reducing the time it takes to find a parking place, the distance travelled, congestion in public spaces and pollution.
The user can access a detailed profile for each car park which specifies the entrance addresses, the opening hours, the type of vehicles allowed, the spaces available, the rates, the list of services offered in the car park and information on the clearance gauge and maximum width in order to access the car park.
As for availability of parking places, real-time information is shown intuitively from the car park location point on the map in the app. A traffic-light indicator provides the straightforward and immediate information users need in order to decide where to park.
Furthermore, in order to optimise the planning of routes using private vehicles, SMOU has incorporated the “I want to park close to my destination” option within its “How do we get there?” route recommender. This new feature shows the location of the closest car parks to the destination and redirects the route to the chosen option.
SMOU is a committed partner in the digitalisation of the city’s car park experience
SMOU now allows car park operators in Barcelona and its metropolitan area to incorporate the app as a payment method for parking by the minute in their car parks. This gives users of the SMOU app easy and convenient access, allowing them to do everything from choose their car park to pay for the time parked.
SMOU, the leading personal-mobility services app in Barcelona and the metropolitan area
With more than 985,000 users in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, SMOU brings together some 20 mobility services. These include by-the-minute payments for on-road and Aparcaments B:SM car park parking, the management of AREA parking places for local residents, the Endolla Barcelona charging point network and Bicing.
It also allows users to check the location of services such as shared bicycles, cars and motorbikes, plus real-time data on public transport, including a journey planner to find the most efficient way to get from one point to another in the city, offering several alternatives. The app also now includes the taxi service, which makes it possible to request and pay for taxi travel around Barcelona and its metropolitan area.
Last year, SMOU recorded a total of 16.4 million transactions, almost 45,000 a day. The app is constantly being improved, and after just four years in operation, the range of services and users continues to grow, making it the app that one in every two people in Barcelona uses to get around the city.
BSM: sustainable mobility services for a better quality of life
Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM) is one of the main service companies in Barcelona. In recent years it has become a leader in managing mobility services and looking after public spaces, as well as a notable cultural and leisure operator.
BSM encourages sustainable, planned, integrated and connected mobility through the SMOU app. It also promotes the development of Endolla Barcelona, the most extensive public charging network in Spain, and manages the Bicing shared-bicycle service, the regulated street parking service (AREA) and Aparcaments BSM's car park network, the largest in Barcelona.
The company also makes a significant contribution to professional mobility through solutions such as the SPRO app, aimed at goods distribution and tourist transport professionals. It also manages the Zona Bus parking and bus stop areas and Barcelona Nord Station, which is being transformed into the city's main local tourist transport hub.
Innovation, digitalisation and continuous improvement are the driving forces behind BSM's work to improve citizens' quality of life.
This is a project financed with funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, itself funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
