Beijing urges citywide parking space sharing

In the latest effort to improve city street management, the Beijing government is encouraging local companies and residential communities to share their parking spaces based on their needs at different times of the day, according to a recent statement released by the capital's transport commission.

Both parties should set parking fees and periods of time by signing agreements. Meanwhile, district governments may reward companies that offer spaces to neighboring residents at night, said the statement. It recommended that those governments provide subsidies to participants as an incentive.

In addition, parking areas in residential buildings should be open to other vehicles after they have met the needs of their own tenants, it said.

"I have been parking in a nearby company's yard at night for several weeks already," said Li Lei, who lives in Desheng Street, a subdistrict of Xicheng district. "The price is much lower than parking in commercial parking lots. Most importantly, it was too hard to find a parking space near my home, and the commercial parking lots are very far."

In fact, some districts in Beijing have been working to ease parking difficulties this year by serving as a bridge for the residential communities and the companies.

Sun Guangjun, director of Desheng Street, said that there was a shortage of 4,000 parking spaces in the region.

There are 22,000 parking spaces on Desheng Street, while the demand is for about 26,000, he said.

The street authority has helped companies in the region exchange parking spaces with residential communities. Thus, residents have been allowed to park their cars in companies' spaces at night, while during the daytime, company employees can park in spaces in the communities.

Fengtai district has carried out similar guidance in the past few months. Fengtai has 814 commercial parking lots with 262,000 parking spaces. According to the district authority, it has a shortage of more than 100,000 parking spaces, especially at night.

Thus, the district has engaged a professional parking management company to help, building a platform for a parking space exchange between residential communities and the companies that own parking areas.

Moreover, parking space data will be uploaded online so residents can get information in real time, providing more convenience for those looking to park their cars.

There are currently about 60,000 parking spaces on city roadsides.

To better regulate the city's roadside parking, all Beijing districts will adopt an electronic billing system starting on Sunday.

The amount of time a car is parked along the street will be monitored by an overhead electronic device, and then the driver will be billed via an app. Drivers can pay through the app or in person with cash at a government service center.