Google today expanded the availability of Google Maps‘ parking tools.
To start, the existing “how difficult is it to park” feature is accessible to 25 new cities outside the U.S. People planning trips need only tap the parking icon to see how easy or hard it might be to find a spot. The new cities include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Cologne, Dusseldorf, London, Madrid, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Toronto, Valencia, Vancouver, and others.
Google Maps for Android gains a new feature that Google says will help U.S.-based users locate a place to put their car. A new “find parking” icon on the directions card will bring up a list of parking garages and lots near the final destination. Users can then tap the garage or lot and navigate directly to it.
Maps will even serve up walking directions to get people from the parking lot to their intended destination. The expanded reach of the basic parking difficulty tool is being made available worldwide to users of Maps for Android and iOS today, while the find parking tool is reaching U.S. users of Maps for Android.
Google Maps is free to download from the Google Play Store or iTunes App Store.
