Tackling Cairo's notorious traffic and parking with technology

Tackling notorious traffic and lack of parking space in Egypt’s capital has gone a notch higher.

Parking spot or Rakna is an application that is offering private valet services in a bid to resolve notorious traffic and lack of parking space plaguing Cairo’s roads.

The application is currently at an experimental phase with 10 users and four valet drivers and is expected to launch within six months.

#Rakna https://t.co/jeJPgBsolX https://t.co/jeJPgBsolX via Cairoscene cairo #Egypt #startup

— Tim Schweizer (@TimSchweizer) March 18, 2016

According to the co- founder, Ahmed Zak, the initial idea was that people would exchange parking spots but has evolved over time.

“If someone was leaving a spot they would exchange with someone who wanted the spot. Slowly the idea evolved until it reached a valet-on-demand service,” he said.

It usage is simple as users can submit a request for valet parking for their vehicle through the Rakna app on their mobile devices.

Traffic congestion is a major issue in Cairo and finding parking is becoming increasingly difficult.

The World Bank estimates that Egypt losses about 2.5 % of GDP annually due to traffic congestion in Cairo.

Though there already other valet driver services in Cairo, Rakna could perhaps be the game changer.