Downtown district in top gear to solve shortage of car parking

Jing'an District has introduced a set of measures to solve the imbalance between cars and parking.

Like any other Shanghai urban districts, Jing'an is beset by limited parking lots. The problem was put to the forefront of the government's agenda after the district was found to need 30,000 more parking spaces to meet the current demands in last year's survey.

One year on, it has completed four projects, providing 692 new parking spaces. It has created new parking lots on the roadside, encouraged government departments to share parking spaces with nearby residents after work, and explored building more underground parking spaces in existing parks.

Resident Cui Ping gave a thumbs-up for the new parking lot built under the greenland near the Daning Jin Mao Palace residential complex.

"Parking has long been a headache for my son-in-law," she said. "It usually takes him at least 30 minutes to find a parking space when he returns from work. Authorities need to integrate resources and explore more possibilities to solve our difficulties."