The suburb of La Salut, home to Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell, has come to an agreement with Google and Apple Maps to remove its bus route from maps to deter tourists and placate locals.
Although Barcelona recently implemented a tourist tax, people living alongside popular tourist attractions, including the residents of La Salut, argued that the tax was not reducing the stress on their overwhelmed public transport systems.
Activists in La Salut claim that the neighbourhood’s elderly people in particular, could not use the public bus system because there was no space for them.
After eight years of complaints, Barcelona’s Deputy Minister of Security and Coexistence, Albert Batlle, authorised the removal of all references to bus routes to and from the suburb on Google’s and Apple’s navigation apps.
