Case study · Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Guaguas Municipales — 837 stops that announce themselves.
How the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Guaguas Municipales and ONCE Canarias made the 837 stops of the urban network accessible with NaviLens, within the European Innobus-Tur programme.
Guaguas
Public bus operator of Las Palmas de GC
837
Stops with NaviLens citywide
≈ €95,000
Project investment (Next Generation · Innobus-Tur)
42
Languages — voice without a second app
The client
Guaguas Municipales · City Council
of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Guaguas Municipales is the public bus operator of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It runs over 40 urban lines stitching Vegueta, Triana, Mesa y López, Alcaravaneras, Las Canteras, La Isleta and Tamaraceite, with key termini such as the Concepción Arenal (Pl. España) interchange or Santa Catalina.
The NaviLens project is developed with the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council (mobility councillor José Eduardo Ramírez), the general management of Guaguas Municipales (Miguel Ángel Rodríguez) and ONCE Canarias (president Miguel Ángel Déniz), within the European Innobus-Tur programme shared with Dbus (San Sebastián), EMT Palma and EMT Málaga.
Press-verified milestone: 1 Dec 2023 launch of the rollout across the 837 stops of the municipal network (Guaguas Municipales, Canarias7, RTVC, Revista Viajeros).
§ The challenge
So no one is left out of their guagua.
- 01
An island-wide urban network
Guaguas Municipales moves Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with lines like 17, 24, 25, 33, 44, 45, 47, X47, 49 or L2, connecting the old town, Vegueta, Triana, Mesa y López, Las Canteras and the neighbourhoods. Signage glued to the shelter glass leaves out blind and low-vision people, the elderly and those who don't read Spanish.
- 02
Find the stop without seeing it
Finding the totem post or shelter at the busy Concepción Arenal, Plaza de España or Mesa y López is not trivial with low vision. NaviLens is detected from several metres, on the move, without aiming and from up to a 160° angle.
- 03
A tourist city with no language barrier
Las Palmas welcomes thousands of visitors a day. With NaviLens, the «Escanea con NaviLens GO · Guaguas» sign reads stop, lines and next buses in the rider's phone language —without reprinting signage.
§ The solution
One code at every stop.
Every stop carries the «Escanea con NaviLens GO · GUAGUAS Para Todo. Para Todos.» sign on the shelter, the totem post and the partition. It is detected from several metres, on the move, without aiming and up to a 160° angle.
The rider hears the stop name and code (Concepción Arenal · Pl. España…), the lines serving it (17, 24, 25, 33, 44, 45, 47, X47, 49, L2…), the destination and the next arrival times — also with low vision or without Spanish.
§ Timeline
From Innobus-Tur to an accessible urban network.
- 1 Dec 2023
Rollout at all 837 network stops
Mobility councillor José Eduardo Ramírez, Guaguas Municipales general manager Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and ONCE Canarias president Miguel Ángel Déniz unveil NaviLens deployed at the 837 stops of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria urban network. Covered by: Guaguas Municipales, RTVC, Canarias7, Revista Viajeros.
- Innobus-Tur
Next Generation funding with SS, Palma and Málaga
The project is part of the Innobus-Tur transport digitalisation programme (Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan · NextGenerationEU), where Guaguas Municipales partners with the councils and public bus operators of San Sebastián (Dbus), Palma (EMT Palma) and Málaga (EMT Málaga). NaviLens-specific investment: ≈ €95,000.
- 16 projects
One more piece of the €7.6M package
NaviLens is one of the 16 Guaguas Municipales projects funded with €7.6M by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The public operator frames it within its universal accessibility strategy, alongside the GuaguasLPA app (147,000 downloads, 50,000 active users) and double stops for people with visual disabilities.
- Today
«GUAGUAS · Para Todo. Para Todos.» model
The signage deployed at shelters, totem posts and partitions (Concepción Arenal · Pl. España stop, L2 stop…) bears the «GUAGUAS · Para Todo. Para Todos.» mark with the «Escanea con NaviLens GO» notice and the European co-funding logos: a single brand to identify any stop in the city and hear name, lines and next departures in 42 languages.
§ On the ground
Shelters, posts and stops across the city.
§ What they said
What the City Council and ONCE said.
“Hemos podido impulsar este importante proyecto de accesibilidad gracias a la concesión de financiación procedente de los fondos Next Generation, concretamente del programa Innobus-Tur para la digitalización del transporte, donde estamos aliados con los ayuntamientos y empresas municipales de transporte de San Sebastián, Palma y Málaga.”
“Hoy es un día muy importante para la mejora de la accesibilidad en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, gracias al trabajo conjunto con el Ayuntamiento y Guaguas Municipales. Es una mejora significativa en las paradas no únicamente para nosotros, las personas ciegas o con deficiencias visuales, sino para todos aquellos visitantes de la ciudad.”
§ Results
A bus anyone can ride.
837
Stops with a NaviLens code on the municipal network
0.03 s
Detection time · 12× the distance of a QR
160°
Reading angle — no aiming, on the move, with low vision
§ And your network?
Your next station can also speak.
Tell us about your network, your pain points and the KPIs you want to move. We’ll show you how NaviLens would fit —with comparable cases.
