More streets opened for night car parking
Print Edition
SHANGHAI has opened 49 night parking areas along local streets in response to the increasing demands for more spaces to park vehicles at night.
Government officials said yesterday that about 1,500 cars will be allowed on quieter streets by the end of the year from 6:30pm to 7am on weekdays as well as on weekends and holidays.
The cars cannot use the parking spaces at other times as doing so would hamper traffic flows, said Zhang Lei, a traffic police officer in Hongkou District. “The scheme has been popular among residents in Hongkou where parking space is insufficient especially in some old residential communities.” Most drivers don’t abuse the time limits, Zhang added.
Some night parking lots have already been opened on streets in downtown Xuhui, Changning, Jing’an, Putuo, Hongkou and Yangpu districts as well as in the suburban Minhang and Baoshan districts, the city government said.
The parking lots are set along a single side of the street and the parking fee is about 5 yuan (75 US cents) a night, but the drivers face heavy fines if they fail to drive away on time.
Baoshan District has lifted the number of night street parking sites to 11 after the first proved to be effective, the district government said yesterday.
In June, the Baoshan traffic police opened 130 parking lots on Hualing Road in the densely populated Dahua area as a trial operation.
“I don’t have to drive home hurriedly every night from work to ‘fight’ for a parking lot in the community,” said a resident surnamed Zhi who works for an accounting company and also has to work overnight.
However, there are also complaints about noise, mostly from residents without vehicles.
The newly opened streets in Baoshan include Xingzhi and Zhenhua roads. The opening periods are adjusted to reduce the impact on traffic and nearby residents, Baoshan police said. Drivers are reminded to read the signboards at each parking site before leaving their cars.
The city has had 3.2 million locally registered cars by the end of 2016. More than 75 percent of vehicles are for private use, according to the city’s transport commission.
It is estimated there are about 640,000 parking lots in downtown residential communities.
The large number of vehicles on the roads has aggravated traffic congestion and made car parking an increasing headache for drivers, an official with the commission said.
To further solve the problem, some office buildings and schools have also opened their parking lots at night for residents living nearby. The parking fees for these spots are even cheaper than street parking, the official added.
The city government plans to open a total of 100 night parking areas around residential complexes and hospitals in downtown districts this year.
Half of these night parking areas will be on the streets, the rest at commercial buildings, the city government said.
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