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Parking: a headache for Shenzheners
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Peng Zhaoxia
MR LI, who lives in Lianhuabei Village, once complained: "I thought buying a car would make my life easier, but it only made things worse because parking has become a real headache for me."
A shortage of parking spaces is a problem most of the world's big cities face. But here in Shenzhen, where people already have to fight to find places to leave their cars, the number of car owners is set to skyrocket once China joins the WTO. Already, many people are rubbing their hands together with glee in anticipation of lower car prices, and, like Mr Li, everyone seems to assume that buying a car will make their lives easier. Yet many of them may wind up facing the cold reality that awaited Mr Li.
Parking problem
There are over 1000 parking lots in SZ, offering more than 100,000 parking spaces. The proportion between parking spaces and number of vehicles is approximately one to three, that is to say, only one space for every three cars, Tang Yan, an official with the parking lot management section affilliated to the Transportation Administration Division under the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, told Shenzhen Daily.
The parking problem has become particularly sharp in some older housing estates. Even though many of them were completed as recently as the early 1990s, their designers didn't take into account the explosion of car ownership, according to Yang Jianchang, a deputy to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress.
Lianhuabeicun Housing Estate is one of the largest government-sponsored housing compounds, and was designed with 5,900 apartments but only 550 fixed parking spaces, which works out to one parking space for every 10 families. Since it was built in the early '90s, however, the total number of parking spaces has expanded to 1,200. Unfortunately, the number of cars in the estate already tops 2,300, and the number is still climbing. As a result, visitors often find cars strewn randomly throughout the estate, blocking sidewalks, covering lawns, and generally reducing the entire area to chaos.
Curiously, despite the shortage of parking spaces, parking costs are still relatively low. The low fees in housing estates draw drivers from outside, making a bad situation even worse. Sources from the Municipal Price Supervisory Bureau of Shenzhen say that parking charges in multi-storey parking lots are no more than 200 yuan (US$24) per month, among the lowest parking fees anywhere, while parking charges in other areas, such as apartment buildings, commercial areas and so on, range from 200 yuan to 500 yuan.
Yang Jianchang also pointed out another reason for the congestion of vehicles in the public places of housing estates: there currently exists no law to prevent such haphazard parking.
According to Yang, the transportation administration submitted to the municipal government a copy of parking lot management regulations which specify proposed violations and punishment measures two years ago. However, it has yet to become law.
Many housing estates such as Huafucun, Huangmugangcun, Lianhuacun and Ludancun and others are facing the same problems. Traffic jams are frequent during rush hours, Yang said. The residents are also subjected to air pollution caused by these vehicles and the damage they cause to green space.
Yang also worries about the possible dire consequences of the situation for residents. In many estates, fire engines may not be able to respond in time to fires due to traffic jams, that once a fire breaks out, it will be hard for fire engines to reach the place and its consequence will be hard to imagine.
Present traffic status
In 2000, the number of locally registered vehicles reached 56,000. At present, there around half a million cars in Shenzhen, 300,000 of which are nonlocally-registerd while Shenzhen-based running vehicles take up 120,000, and the number of vehicles arriving from other parts of the country stands at around 50,000 per day.
Furthermore, sources from the branch office of the Specialized Market affiliated with the Municipal Administration of Industry & Commerce of Shenzhen say that car sales in the first quarter of this year reached a total sales volume of RMB2.121 billion.
Statistics from the present vehicle market suggest that 90 per cent of vehicle sales are to private familes.
According to insiders, family vehicle purchases are an important part of the city's development plans, as car sales are viewed as a way to help boost the auto industry.
With the continued decline in auto prices and the constant promotion of sleek economy cars in the market since last June, many working-class citizens have decided to buy their own cars. Moreover, the government is encouraging auto sales by mapping out a series of policies favourable to consumers. According to experts, the expected number of car sales will hit 2.37 million, among which 0.72 million will be private cars.
A new contradiction
Just to add insult to injury, the city is facing a particularly embarassing situation: Failing to cover the entire service area as planned, some multi-storey parking lots are left empty due to their improper site selection while others are instead used for other commercial purposes such as department stores, entertainment venues and so on.
Meanwhile, public parking lots in commercial areas are always full during daytime. Car owners usually tend to choose, for the sake of convenience, outdoor parking lots rather than indoor garages. As a result, outdoor lots are congested, while indoor garages have room to spare.
Suggestions
Insiders pointed out that parking lots should be viewed as an important part in new housing estates. Homebuyers should also be encouraged to purchase or rent parking space so as to prevent people from haphazard parking due to the low parking charges in these areas.
Drawing up laws about parking management is essential in tackling these problems concerned. However it requires co-operation from many authorities such as the Muncipal State Land Planning Bureau, the Price Supervisory Bureau, the Housing Bureau, the Transportation Administration Divsion and others.
Furthermore, perfecting public transportion facilities will be effective in relieving the transportation pressure on some commercial parts of the city, for it will surely encourage citizens to make use of public transportion.
As for entertainment areas, strategic placement of parking meters has proven to be an effective way of pushing drivers to nearby parking lots.
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