Circling the block looking for a space costs time, fuel and patience. Ghent's garages count their free spaces live, but that number was hard to find when you needed it. Parqs puts it in one place: every garage and P+R, how many spaces are free right now, and which one is best for where you're going.

Where the numbers come from

The counts come from the garages' own counters, published by the City of Ghent as open data. Parqs reads them every minute. Every number shows how old it is, and a count older than 20 minutes is never shown as live: Parqs says "No live data" instead.

• Plenty of space: 30% or more of the spaces are free.
• Filling up: between 10% and 30% free.
• Almost full: under 10% free, or 20 spaces or fewer.
• Full: no free spaces.

Forecasts come from the history Parqs keeps of every count, so they get sharper week by week. Prices come from the city's tariff pages, checked by hand, and each one shows the day we last checked it.

What's next

More cities, as soon as their garages share live counts. Leave your email and we'll tell you when Parqs reaches yours. The iPhone app is in public beta now.

Who makes Parqs

Parqs is an independent project by Jasper Aelvoet, from Lievegem near Ghent. It's not run by the city or by any garage operator, and it has no ads. Questions, ideas or a number that looks wrong: write to contact@parqs.app.