As part of its effort to find new revenues from its regional parks, Metro Vancouver is rolling out a new smartphone app they hope will help park-goers explore the wilderness.
Like a digital park guide, Metro Vancouver's new iNavigator app is meant to be an all-in-one store of the kind of practical tools and information any park-goer might require while in the bush.
The new application was first made available over the BC Day long weekend and is so far only available for iPhone and iPad users at a cost of $2.99.
Metro already has a free parks app, released in September, called iExplorer, which will still be available at no cost from iTunes at least until the updated version of iNavigator is released in the fall, according to Stephen Suddes, Metro Vancouver's division manager of parks visitor services. At that point, Metro plans to make the new app available to Blackberry and Android phone users too.
One of the biggest advances in the new app, Suddes said, is the new multi-layered, GPS-enabled park maps which can point lost hikers in the right direction and give trail conditions in real time as opposed to the old static park maps on iExplorer.
Another new feature is Metro's ability to send live park advisories to app users in the event of a bear sighting in their area or sightings of other rare wildlife that park-goers might be curious about.
The new iNavigator app could also prove useful to downloaders even before getting to the park, providing walking, driving, cycling and transit directions to any of the region's 22 parks and three greenways.
Here in the Tri-Cities, visitors to Belcarra, Colony Farm and Minnekhada regional parks can view park users' photos and videos before setting out and browse each park's events page to see what's on.
Suddes said the shift from a free app to a paid app is part of a new revenue model Metro is exploring in an effort to reduce its reliance on park fees and levies.
