New parking app avoids unjustified fines for persons with disabilities
The new app handyPark provides persons with disabilities with a digital parking right and avoids unjustified parking fines. People can currently use handyPark in Antwerp, Brussels, Ostend, Ghent, Genk, Leuven and Liège. About sixty other cities and municipalities will join soon.
More and more Belgian cities and municipalities are choosing to digitally register where someone parks. This can be done by registering a number plate via SMS, application or at the pay machine. Control is done via a parking attendant with a tablet or a scan car. The problem is that scan cars do not see the parking card for persons with disabilities behind the windscreen. As a result, unjustified parking fines are sometimes issued.
The app handyPark, which is launched nationally on Monday, makes it possible to digitally link that special parking card to a number plate. To do so, users must log in to the app once via Itsme or e-ID. After activation, scan cars are automatically notified of the linked number plate. The linking can be done with more than one number plate. The ordinary parking card must also always be behind the windscreen.
The handyPark app was developed in Antwerp. It can currently be used in Antwerp, Brussels, Ostend, Ghent, Genk, Leuven and Liège. Soon, about sixty more cities and municipalities will join, including the 19 Brussels municipalities, Mechelen and Bruges.
Half a million parking cards
Responsible minister Rob Beenders welcomed the national launch. “In total, there are more than half a million parking cards for persons with disabilities in our country,” he stressed. “This emphasises once again how large this group of people is.” He calls on all cities and municipalities using scan cars to join the application.
Illustration © BELGA PHOTO ARTERRA
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