AIRBNB LIKE APP FOR PARKING NEEDED FOR BAGUIO CITY

BAGUIO CITY

An Airbnb like app that could get a driver a parking in unused spaces or even houses with a garage could help solve the traffic mess in the city especially during weekends. MPT Mobility vice president Mark Richmond de Leon made this suggestion to ease out traffic in the city caused by out-of-town vehicle owners who just roam around the city in the hope of finding a parking space. While tourists with vehicles comprise only 20 percent of the vehicles that roam the city during the weekend, that number cause the traffic nightmare.

De Leon suggested that these vehicles need to be taken out of the roads, maybe offer an Airbnb for parking app should be made and where garage owners or even those in condominiums where tenants have a parking slot could be
offered as parking spaces. Parkstash in San Jose, California for instance, is an app designed by a former San Jose
University student who used to arrive for class late because he cannot park at the school’s parking lot. Some 15,000
students compete for the 5,000 slots the university offers. Students pay US$192 per semester for a car pass.

While driving around the town to look for a parking space near his school, ParkStash founder Sameer Saran saw
empty driveways near his campus that prompted him to ask the homeowners to share their empty driveways for a fee. In January 2019, the ParkStash app, patterned after Airbnb, was launched where drivers could be connected to
homeowners with empty driveways for a fee. MPT Mobility is offering a smart urban mobility project for Baguio that will improve mobility within the car clogged city streets.

This include a public transport management system, a smart parking management and enforcement systems, as well as a congestion fee charging. The last, however, does not sit well with locals fearing that they be charged PhP250 to enter the central business district.

Pigeon Lobien/ABN

Amianan Balita Ngayon