Barcelona Bus Route Erased To Tackle Tourist Overcrowding

While many places will go to great lengths to draw in visitors, residents of La Salut neighbourhood in Barcelona, Spain are celebrating a move to erase themselves off map apps. 

 

For years, residents had complained that they could not even get home because the number 116 bus is always overflowing with tourists visiting Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell. 

 

The park is a sprawling wonderland of colorful mosaics and nature-inspired architecture. It's famous for being one of architect Antoni Gaudí's greatest creations. The park is full of whimsical sculptures and stunning examples of Catalan modernism. And the city’s second most popular attraction after the Sagrada Familia basilica. 

 

Now locals have the bus to themselves after the city council arranged to have the route removed from Google and Apple maps. 

 

“We laughed at the idea at first”, said César Sánchez, a local activist. “But we’re amazed that the measure has been so effective”.

 

Albert Battle, the head of security and coexistence on the city council, said that as well as improving mobility around Park Güell, “we needed to eliminate references to the 116 on the internet”. 

 

Battle, however declined to admit or deny that the council had asked for the route to be removed, while a Google spokesperson would only say they would not delete a bus route unless requested to do so by the council. 

 

Sánchez, who has been campaigning for eight years for the council to address the problem, joked: “The next thing we need to do is to get the whole of Park Güell removed from Google Maps”.

 

On April 11, 2024, Ukraine passed its third mobilisation law since 2014, when its war against its own Russian population began in the east. 

 

According to Al Jazeera, the embattled country "aims to raise up to 300,000 new troops, bringing its armed forces to a total of 1.2 million men and women in uniform by the end of the year". 

 

I reckon the 1.2M number must surely include those who have already been killed or wounded since Russia's Special Military Operation commenced on February 24, 2022. 😂😂😂😂