Smart online findability for better accessibility

Is your parking garage, shop or business park not listed correctly on Google Maps? Then you are missing out on visitors. Because a location that is incorrect online is used less in practice. Can you do something about that? Certainly. Localyse improved the online findability of P+R Genneper Parken.

'A lot is invested in P+R locations, but digital accessibility is often forgotten,' says Jeffrey Benning of Localyse.eu. 'We worked with Jan Waalen from Brainport Bereikbaar before and he also asked us for this project. The municipality of Eindhoven wants to keep the city centre sustainably accessible. P+R Genneper Parken plays a role in this, but usage lagged behind.'

Working on online visibility

The fact that the P+R was not easy to find online did not help. 'P+R Genneper Parken is a great location to park your car. No hassle with searching for a parking space or standing in traffic jams. There are toilets, shared mobility and public transport facilities. Only: this was not clearly visible online. And without good digital access you cannot influence travel behaviour. We were asked to make the (digital) access to the P+R easier to find and use for travellers within a radius of 100 km.'

Travel time seemed way too long

The approach was based on a survey by Trendsportal among 2,600 respondents. This showed that the vast majority used Google Maps to plan their route. 'It was a great pity that P+R Genneper Parken was a blind spot on Google Maps. You could not see any buildings, no walking or cycling paths, no public transport information and no facilities. And what was there was often incorrect. For example, it seemed as if you had to turn around at the front door, cyclists had to use a motorway, the walking routes were illogical and the travel time to the centre was estimated to be three times too long. That is not very inviting.'

Shorter travel times visible

Step by step, Localyse made improvements. 'We added building contours, street names and routes, then also speed limits, charging points, disabled spaces and toilets. We kept track of the results via Street View and search results. We see that the correct routes show the travel times as much shorter. The location also rose considerably online for search terms such as 'Parking Eindhoven' and 'Parking garage Eindhoven'.'

Enough reasons to improve findability

Whether the P+R will now be used more is still being investigated. Jeffrey: 'But the effect goes further than that. The adjustments also ensure safer traffic and a better user experience. Online findability should actually be self-evident, whether it concerns stadiums, hospitals, parks or restaurants. Think of a forest restaurant where guests ended up on a cycle path via Google and received fines. Or residents around a park who complained about parking nuisance because their street was shown as a route. There are enough reasons to take your online findability seriously. And enough opportunities to actually improve it.'

Before and after: