Parking in Bern: free spaces live and the rules

What is new?

Parken in Bern is a new map app in Bärn Kit. It shows the nine public car parks of the city of Bern on a map and in a list, with the free spaces live. Green means plenty of space, yellow few, red almost full. Under “Rules” you find how the blue zone, parking meters and permits work, every rule with a link to the official source.

Why this app?

Before every drive into town, two questions come up: where is there still space, and where can I park for free? The city reports the free spaces. The rules are spread across federal ordinances, the canton and bern.ch. We put both on one page, with no account and no tracking.

How it works

1. Open “Car parks”: the map and the list show the free spaces of every car park.
2. Sort by “Free spaces” or “Nearby”; with “My location” the list is sorted from where you are, otherwise from the centre of the map.
3. Under “Show on the map” switch on the blue zone, parking meters, disabled parking, motorbikes and charging. Under “Rules” the parking disc calculator tells you until when you may stay.

The page loads the free spaces directly from the City of Bern's geoportal (map.bern.ch). The city updates the numbers about every 10 minutes, the page asks every 60 seconds. Without a connection it shows the last known numbers in grey, with date and time, and says clearly that they are not current. In the blue zone you may park Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 7 pm for 1 hour with a parking disc, from the next mark after you arrive. The signs on site always apply. Your location stays in the browser.

Sources and thanks

Without open data and clear official texts this page would not exist. Our thanks go to:

• Geoinformation Stadt Bern: for the open geodata of the car parks and the parking spaces (blue zone, meters, disabled, motorbikes, charging), described on opendata.swiss, and for the geoportal map.bern.ch, from which the page loads the free spaces from the parking guidance system live. Thank you for the open data!
• City of Bern: for the pages on car parks, permits for residents and visitors and paying at the meter. Thank you!
• Swiss Confederation, Fedlex: for the road signs ordinance (blue zone, parking disc) and the traffic rules ordinance (parking card for people with a walking disability). Thank you!
• Road traffic office of the canton of Bern: for the information on the parking card for people with a walking disability. Thank you!
• OpenStreetMap contributors: for the map everything sits on. Thank you!

We do not copy the car parks' tariffs; every car park has a link to its website.