Google has recently added parking information into its Google Maps app which should be really handy for users who want to drive to a specific location and the destination doesn’t provide any parking. This is very true especially if you want to route yourself to a national monument or a tourist spot where parking is not available. Google Maps will then help you identify if that particular location has little or no parking.
The aim is to continually assist people to be able to get the best timing in terms of their route which includes driving to the parking location, walking from the parking spot and finally arriving at the intended destination. Definitely a real help for tourists and visitors. I was heavily relying on Google Maps recently when I was driving through Milan and Genoa and most of the time in those old cities, parking is always a pain. So after routing to the destination, I would have to then start my search near the destination for parking locations. This is definitely a step in the forward direction.
As of this time, parking difficulty icons are now available in the following cities:, Alicante, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Cologne, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Toronto, Valencia, and Vancouver.
People can now find parking in the following US cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth, DC, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Tampa.
What it is still missing are whether there are parking spaces available and how much the parking charges are which parking apps in Europe offer at the moment. Hopefully, Google will continue rolling out the feature across the world and continues to improve on it.
[Source: Google]
