The tourist overcrowding that overwhelms the public services of Lanzarote is a phenomenon that Barcelona has been facing for many years.
There are rarely quick solutions to structural problems, but in the city of Barcelona they have shown that what disappears from Google Maps is saved from overcrowding.
There, it has been the route of the mini-bus 116 of the public company BTM, which was full of tourists from its first stop. There are many other public transport options to get to the Güell Park, but that route, which is carried out with vehicles with 14 seats and 22 places in total, was inexorably Google's number one recommendation.
The 116, which connects the Gracia neighborhood with that of La Salut, disappeared at the end of March, from one day to the next, from both Google Maps and Apple Maps, and the overcrowding ended.
The neighbors' complaints had reached the City Council and the Councilor for Security and Coexistence, Albert Batlle, asked about the overcrowding of the itinerary in February, said: "It is important to be able to remove the 116 from the routing tools that guide tourists."
According to the newspaper El País, the city council of the capital of Barcelona neither confirms nor denies that it has asked Google or other mobility applications to remove this route, but Google sources explained to this medium that they only remove routes if the consortiums request it.
