Individuals Encouraged to Build Parking Lots in Beijing

The Beijing municipal government is encouraging individuals to invest in-of all things-building parking lots. It recently said it needs all parties' efforts to help provide thousands of much-needed parking spaces in the densely populated metropolis.

Let's take a closer look with reporter Liu Min.

The Beijing municipal government is now soliciting public opinion on a newly revised regulation concerning the management of automobile parking issues. The new policy encourages individuals, companies and even city administrative bureaus to invest in the building of new parking lots or open their existing spaces to the public and allow them to make profit on parking fees.

Professor Shi Jing from the Traffic Issue Research Center at Tsinghua University says the new policy indicates the local government's resolution to resolve Beijing's traffic problems.

"This has shown a kind of progress in traffic management in Beijing. This is also something that we have to deal with now. The number of parking spaces is far fewer than the number of vehicles in the huge city."

According to data from the Beijing municipal government, the number of parking spaces is less than half the number of registered vehicles in the city. In recent years, the city's leaders have come up with a series of traffic control policies, including traffic restriction measures, limits on car purchases, and an increase in parking fees in downtown areas. But the overall lack of parking spaces and traffic congestion seem to problematic to overcome.

"It's very difficult to find a place to park in my community if I get home late. Sometimes I have no choice but to park the car by blocking others' passages. So I have to stick my phone number on the windshield so that my neighbors can call me to move my car if they need access."

"I have to ride a bike to work now and only drive my car during weekends."

In the draft regulation, the Beijing municipal government has suggested lowering the amount of money required to build new parking lots or expand existing ones. It also plans to increase parking fees for roadside spaces and use the proceeds to hire more workers to manage existing parking lots.

The municipal government has also come up with the new idea of shared parking spaces. Take a hospital and its nearby residential community for example. Hospital employees can park their cars in nearby residential communities during the day so that more spaces are available for patients. During the night, some of the hospital's parking spaces can be made available to residents of nearby communities. Such a system will not only ease parking pressure but also help reduce parking expenses.

One Beijing resident who must drive his car to work every day complains about the increasing parking fees.

"The cost of parking cars is very high in this city. If you choose to park your car in underground parking lots, then you need to spend 800 yuan per month. It costs you at least six yuan per hour above ground. If you arrive a little late, you can't find a place to park even if you have enough money to pay for a space."

While many western countries have multilevel parking garages, such facilities are rare in Beijing because of a lack of overall city planning and adequate investment.

To encourage more individual investors and businesses to invest in parking lot construction, the Beijing municipal government has pledged to provide financial incentives to help reduce the cost of land fees. In the past, most property developers have chosen to build houses instead of parking lots because of their concerns about whether they could earn high enough returns on their investment.

Some traffic experts believe that the municipal government's new regulations and incentives will entice more individuals and companies to build new parking lots in Beijing.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.