BlueParking, an app for geolocating places reserved for people with disabilities » PACA’s economic and political newsletter
The expert surveyors are launching “Blue Parking”, a citizen and participative application to geolocate all the parking spaces reserved for people with disabilities.
On the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, surveyors are launching “Blue Parking”, a smartphone application that allows citizens to geolocate places reserved for people with reduced mobility. At their side, the profession has also been mobilizing for more than a year to georeference these locations to the nearest centimeter. This data is then displayed directly in the application in order to support people with disabilities in their daily journeys. The operation received the “All concerned, all mobilized” label from the National Disability Conference, which is the most encouraged label for such a project.
In France, data concerning the number and location of parking spaces for disabled people are rarely available and systematically imprecise, when they exist. An observation that led the surveyors to mobilize to make possible the geolocation of all these parking places and then put this data in open-data. People who request it can thus find all the places received, easily, via a cartography produced by Géofoncier, the first geographic and land information portal in France.
A simple gesture that facilitates the mobility of people with disabilities
The application is designed to be accessible to everyone, young and old. Whether you’re out for a walk, on the way to school, or going to school, all you need to do is bring your smartphone and keep your eyes peeled. In one click, the places reserved for people with disabilities will appear directly on the “map” of the application with precision to the nearest meter. Surveyors could then go on site to georeference these places to the nearest centimeter, as they have been doing for a year now.
Already more than 30,000 places georeferenced by the profession
Last year, all the firms of surveyors were mobilized to start this vast georeferencing project. In the space of a month, the profession had managed to identify more than 20,000 places. The contribution of the profession is essential since it makes it possible to georeference the spaces reserved for people with disabilities in GNSS, that is to say that their coordinates will be reliable “to the nearest centimeter”. The purpose of this choice is to allow the use of data by autonomous vehicles, these new modes of transport being able, in the future, to offer a secure mobility solution for people with disabilities… Provided that reliable data is available!
“I am very proud to lead this operation which reflects the values of our profession in the service of a sustainable and inclusive living environment! We are now giving an appointment to the specialized actors so that they can take advantage of this data and that they, in turn, contribute to simplifying the journeys of people with disabilities”, added Joseph Pascual, the President of the High Council of the Order of surveyors.
“We must continue this dynamism and increase the results so that this operation with a strong societal impact fulfills its ambitions. By bringing this operation to life, we are part of a responsible and committed societal approach. We are counting on the motivation of the departmental chambers to relaunch this wonderful initiative” insisted Cécile Taffin, President of the National Union of Expert Surveyors.
KEY FIGURES FOR THE SURVEYING PROFESSION
1862 expert surveyors registered on the roll of the Order
1095 offices spread across the whole territory
A sector of 10,000 jobs mainly in SMEs
76% of firms are companies
An average of 8 employees / office