Blue Badge Parking

This app uses a database of parking locations by kind permission of Dan Gibson at “BlueBadgeParking.com”. After the initial launch of app, if you don’t have cellular connection it uses the last version saved. When launched, app looks for nearest spaces to your location based on the Search Radius selected in ‘Settings’ (default 3 miles / 4.5kms).

Map tab:-
The circular ‘Zoom’ button toggles between 3 views, Zoom just nearby locations or your location & all nearby locations & if a pin is selected then it zooms right into just that location. The pin flag has a blue ‘i’ & if you touch that a menu appears with Navigation Options.

Searching other Towns:-
In the main ‘Map’ tab, touch the search box at the top & you can enter not only a Town or City but also Post or Zip codes.

List tab:-
The list which is sorted so nearest to you or if you used the search box then nearest that location is at the top. Parking locations are within same Search Radius as Map. If your location has changed then ‘pull’ list down ‘to refresh’ distances & locations. If you would like to view a particular location just touch description & ‘Map’ tab opens with that location shown.

Notify tab (The following features will be added soon):-
This tab lets you Add, Edit, Move or Delete locations. The Mark & Favourite options do fully work allowing users to Mark a location temporally & the Favourite is a more permanent option & remembered even after a Full Database downloaded.

Settings tab:-
This tab lets you change the search radius, distance units, enable / disable Beep Sounds, Delete ‘Marked’ which has 4 options, Enable Shake feature, Disable Screen Auto Lock, Larger Display changes size of text & some controls, Zoom with Satellite view, display all Favourite in List Tab & Shake in Map Tab which has 3 options. These settings are remembered when the app is closed, ready for next time.

Short Cuts:-
There are 3 functions that use the ‘Shake’ facility which means when you shake your iDevice firmly, it will trigger one of these:-
1/ In Map tab:-
If there are parking location pins visible, it zooms into nearest. You can then touch zoom button which temporally switches to Satellite view.
2/ Notify tab:-
After shaking iDevice a Menu appears with 3 options.
A/ ‘Add’, ‘Quick’ or ‘Favourite’ location which at present work but you can’t update the database directly.
B/ “’Mark’ Location on Map” this drops a pin on the map where you are standing, so if you are stood by your vehicle it helps you find it again later. The flag includes road name, current Date & Time to act as a reminder if parking time is limited. You can add as many of these as you want & ‘Discard’ them individually or if enabled in Settings, app will automatically remove them after the chosen delay.

There are 2 compass features in Map:-
1/ Touch & Hold the map & a compass arrow appears, rotate iDevice until arrow with words ‘Device North’ is pointing to the top of the screen. Now pins or Points of Interest are in the direction relative to your screen.
2/ Touch any pin & choose ‘Location Direction’ & a blue arrow appears pointing towards the pin & the Line of Sight distance is shown inside the arrow. These are constantly updated as you walk about, to dismiss arrow, just touch screen.

Show Walking Route:-
From the Map “Navigation Options” select ‘Show Walking Route’ & app calculates best walking route to the selected pin & displays the actual distance. This feature requires a network connection.

Compatibility:-
Blue Badge Parking is Universal, ideally with cellular connection (not essential as the last downloaded data is retained), compatible with all iPad’s with GPS, all iPhone 4 to iPhone 13.

Requires iOS 8.2 or later.