2024-01-22 10:32:35
The famous 55-year-old adventurer sees this project as “a new adventure”. NICK OTTO / AFP
Called VIP, for “Very Important Parking”, this new application also aims to eventually list all places (restaurants, hotels, toilets, stores, etc.) easily accessible to people with reduced mobility.
«I give a lot of conferences. And every time I arrive in a new city, I go around in circles to find a suitable place and I consume a lot of gasoline.» Faced with such an observation, Philippe Croizon wanted to find a solution for all people with disabilities who, like him, regularly find themselves in funny situations when finding parking spaces accessible to people with reduced mobility (PRM). For the famous adventurer who lost four limbs after a dramatic accident 30 years ago, creating an application became obvious.
«But be careful, I wanted to do something very “quality” which lists parking spaces, with a lot of information, but also lots of suggestions for accessible places to help people with reduced mobility in their daily lives. Because parking is never the end goal, but often the way to get to the bakery for example“, underlines the 55-year-old athlete, brimming with energy, who considers this project to be “a new adventure“. Just like the swim across the Channel which made him known to the general public in 2010.
Philippe Croizon and his sidekick Thierry Garot, the two founders of the application. VIP
«It is high time that people with disabilities were considered VIPs, while to date, there is no comprehensive solution to facilitate access to parking spaces for people with reduced mobility (PRM)”, we can read on the application websitewhich also recalls that 72% of people with disabilities over the age of 18 have a driving license, and that more than half of them (60%) use a wheelchair.
It is for these people that the VIP application was born, for “Very Important Parking”, officially launched this Monday, a month after the release of the first version, open to a community of 150 beta testers responsible for add the first data. “It worked beyond our expectations. The beta testers took ownership of the application and, in 15 days, they had already identified 1,300 parking spaces, public or private.», Welcomes Philippe Croizon, who estimates their total number at three million in France, according to a calculation based on the legal obligations incumbent on municipalities.
Also read: Philippe Croizon asks Elon Musk to send him into space and gets a response
Parking spaces, but not only that
And if the main objective of the application is to establish an exhaustive map of places accessible to people with disabilities, its use does not stop there. “Parking spaces are one thing, but having a list of accessible places is just as important», underlines Thierry Garot, who accompanies Philippe Croizon in this adventure. A subject far from trivial for these two men, who affirm that “and commerce accessible displays between 10 and 12% additional turnover“. Thus, the VIP app “aims to list by spring 2024 all restaurants, hotels, toilets, cinemas, tourist sites and stores easily accessible to PRMs».
Together, they now carry the objective “to reach the largest community possible», knowing that France has 12 million disabled people and no less than 11 million caregivers, the main ones affected by this application but far from being the only ones able to use it. Another functionality offered: that of declaring oneself “parked” in a space, and announcing for what period of time, so that other users can know when it will become available.
Ultimately, it will also be possible on the application to find spaces in private car parks (such as those operated by Vinci, Indigo or EFFIA) and to reserve them. A revolution when we know that some car parks are full while the places reserved for PRMs are always free. But all this comes at a cost: the application is offered at 2.99 euros per month to its subscribers, or at 19.99 euros for life for the very first subscribers.
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