Barcelona removes tourist bus route from Google Maps so elderly locals can find a seat

https://i.redd.it/gjqyhkez43uc1.jpeg

by TheTelegraph

24 comments

  1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

    Barcelona authorities have removed a bus route through a hilly region of the city from Google Maps to stop tourists elbowing out elderly locals.

    The number 116 is a minibus with room for just 20 passengers in the narrow streets of Barcelona’s Gràcia district.

    It had become saturated with backpack-carrying tourists in recent years because it stops at Park Güell, a landmark designed by architect Antoni Gaudí,

    Barcelona’s city council increased the frequency of the service, but residents still complained that they were often unable to find a seat.

    Cllr Albert Batlle said earlier this year that city hall had decided to “remove the bus from route searches and other internet tools”.

    Cesca Sánchez, a member of the Park Güell neighbours association, said the removal of the 116 from Google Maps’ recommended route service had made a dramatic difference overnight.

    # Sounded absurd

    “We laughed when we first heard the idea because it sounded absurd and futile,” Ms Sánchez told the digital newspaper elDiario.

    “But now we are amazed because the measure really is being effective:”

    **Read more:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/12/barcelona-removes-park-guell-bus-route-from-google-maps/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/12/barcelona-removes-park-guell-bus-route-from-google-maps/)

  2. ‘I had arthritis but had an absurd idea what if I cut off my hand, so I did and now I don’t have problems in my hand anymore. I was amazed by how effective this measure was overnight.’

  3. I assume this is related to a bus driver shortage, blame tourists and the problen is ”solved”

    >Europe’s bus and coach driver shortage widens 54%, according to IRU. 105,000 driver positions are missing, 10 percent of the total professional driver population. Over 80% of bus and coach operating companies face severe difficulties to fill driver positions. And driver shortages are forecast to more than double in five years, reaching 275,000.

  5. Much better than just increasing capacity of the service.  Wouldn’t want all those sneaky fare-paying passengers to pollute the city’s coffers with their disgusting money.

  6. Barcelona, wild idea for future – maybe just run bigger busses or have more of them?

    inb4 bus drivers shortages

    Yeah, I wonder why you may be experiencing that problem…

  7. Maybe the next step should be – tourists are not supposed to come at all. They should just send their money.

  8. I guess I’ll have to ask locals about it then. Problem solved.

  9. JUST FUND PUBLIC TRANSIT AND YOU WOULDN’T HAVE THIS PROBLEM

  10. Honestly I never felt more unwelcome as a tourist than I felt in Barcelona. A lot of residents actively hate tourists, and there is a proper anti tourism movement there. For some reason, it never occurs to them to direct their anger at their governments instead, for not protecting their housing and controlling excess tourism.

  11. The locals thought it was pretty weird we walked to park guell instead of taking the bus. But here’s another argument for it.

  12. I really enjoyed my time in Barcelona. Beautiful city, amazing food, nice people. But Park Guell was underwhelming at best.

  13. Just increase tourist tax then rather to do acts of ~~mobbing~~ bullying that will cause people to use Taxis or take uselessly long routes and therefore occupy seats for longer

    Tourist tax + cracking down on Airbnb allows them to prices out mass tourists any time they want

    The thing is, they actually want all that tourist money so rather than fixing the problem.they just be a bit shitty to tourists hoping that these acts of revenge keep the voter base calm

    Sure, this act is effective know….till people start using some app like Moovit. They will block this, people download the local app. What’s the end game, end up with the local app only in catalan?

  14. I don’t know how I feel about this. But seems wrong

  15. Why are the elderly locals using a tourist bus in the first place?

    *^(/s)*

  17. Media inform widely about this, so that all future tourists can know which bus to use and continue to collapse the service.

  18. People here are being very cynical but they obviously don’t know the reality.

    I call these buses “old people buses” because that’s pretty much their purpose. It’s quite a special service using tiny buses that go deep in narrow streets of various neighbourhoods, pick up mostly elderly and disabled people, and drop them off to interconnections with major bus routes, metro stations, important spots in the neighborhood, etc.

    The small buses are used because they are supposed to pick a handful of elderly people and run through tiny streets.
    Their purpose isn’t to haul off tourists to park Güell.
    Barcelona has some of the best public transport I’ve seen in Europe, especially when it comes to giving proper service to more vulnerable people.
    There are already many alternative routes and other entrances to park Güell.
    The city has already increased service on this small route, which has been ineffective.

    At some point, parts of the city simply cannot keep up with the influx of visitors. That’s why they had to close up Park Güell and make people buy a ticket for it in the first place, to reduce the amount of people coming and pay for maintenance.

    The tourist hate is over the top here, but the reality is that there is a finite amount of space and a seemingly infinite amount of people who want to visit some of the spots here

  20. having to deal with tourists crowds on your daily commute is already a nightmare, can’t imagine how harder it is for an elderly person

  21. Absolutely flabbergasted at people in the comments

    It’s literally just one bus line

    And you aren’t forbidden to take it – you just won’t get it on google maps . Also trying to offer the obvious solutions that are already mentioned on the article, as they were obviously considered.

    For those who think the tourists are the priority (oh, they bring money, you don’t say) and local residents don’t matter – go visit Venice, there aren’t many residents left anyway. Enjoy the city that is a museum and not an actual living place for its residents

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