Skip to main content

Flowbird improves accessibility in Tampa

App simplifies free parking for permit holders with disabilities
By Andrew Stone August 16, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
People can pay from their phones for disabled parking spaces (© Meinzahn | Dreamstime.com)

Kerbside management and urban mobility solutions provider Flowbird Group is partnering with the City of Tampa in a new accessibility initiative to help provide four hours of free parking for disabled permit holders.

The initiative, which integrates the Flowbird mobile parking app into the city’s mobile parking payment applications, improves accessibility to more than 16,000 parking spaces across the city.

Flowbird’s app allows users to pay for parking from their mobile devices, receive text notifications when time is about to expire, and extend their time without having to visit a pay station. The Flowbird app features a map-based user interface, integrated with Waze and other navigation systems, to guide users to their preferred parking location.

“By integrating the Flowbird app into the city’s parking system, we are simplifying the process for disabled individuals and empowering them to navigate the city with convenience and peace of mind,” says Benoit Reliquet, president of Flowbird America.

The initiative is part of a partnership with four major mobile parking payment applications, including Flowbird, created by the city’s Mobility Department Parking Division designed to provide a touchless and convenient parking experience for residents and visitors.

“The city wanted to ensure that our residents and visitors are equipped with the most convenient and innovative methods to make parking payment transactions effortless,” says Fed Revolte, parking division manager for the City of Tampa.

Related Content

  • January 25, 2012
    Increasing and improving disabled access to public transport
    An overview of European efforts to increase disabled access to public transport, by David Crawford
  • April 24, 2020
    Transit must be accessible to all, says SkedGo
    When it comes to accessibility we need to embrace a more open and collaborative approach to ensure MaaS realises its true potential, says SkedGo’s Sandra Witzel – after all, a billion people on the planet have a disability
  • October 27, 2016
    Rio’s TMC rises to Olympic challenge
    Timothy Compston lifts the lid on Rio de Janeiro’s preparations for keeping its transport systems moving during the Olympics – and the outcome. Hosting the Olympics poses major traffic management challenges for any city and Rio was no exception – especially as it is already one of the world’s most congested cities. Beyond its normal 6.5 million inhabitants wanting to carry on their daily lives, in August Rio was also home to 11,300 athletes from 206 countries. Athletes who, without fail, had to reach their
  • March 11, 2015
    Data exploits parking potential
    David Crawford parallel parks with innovations in two continents. Surveys of US cities indicate that drivers searching for parking can account for up to 37% of all urban traffic congestion. A 2011 study by IBM of 20 cities around the world found that nearly six out of ten drivers had abandoned their search for a parking space at least once; while motorists generally spent on average 20 minutes looking for a sought-after spot.