Negotiations make scrambling for parking spaces a thing of the past

Since 2017, 441 shared parking spaces have been added at nearly 20 residential communities in Songjiang District, a measure that has been shortlisted as one of Shanghai’s administration-by-law model gestures.

Private cars in the district’s Rongnanyuan residential area had outnumbered the community’s parking spaces, with 620 private cars for 560 spaces. Drivers would scramble for a parking spot, even crashing their cars in the process.

“We have marked parking spaces in every vacant place we can find. It is true there are no more spare places any longer,” said a member of the property management staff.

“People who returned home early would find a parking space. Those who returned late could only park their cars along the roadside,” said Zhang Chundong, vice general manager of Shanghai Rongsheng Property Management Co.

“When I returned home late, I could only park my car at a nearby public parking lot. It cost me over 30 yuan (US$4.48) per night and the one-month parking fee surpassed the yearly parking fee charged by the community,” said a male resident surnamed Shen.

A 8,900-square-meter public short-stay car park at the northeast crossing between Fangta Road S. and Songhui Road has 170 parking spaces. Since the car park received mostly vehicles belonging to nearby stores or office workers during the day, they were mostly vacant at night.

The Rongsheng company, which manages both the car park and the nearby residential communities, negotiated with the district’s traffic committee and decided to open 150 parking spaces for residents. Each private car is charged 600 yuan a year.

“Compared with the 800 -yuan yearly fee charged by each community, the parking fee of a shared parking space here is cheaper. Besides, a janitor is overseeing the car park to ensure property safety. Therefore, those shared parking spaces were soon booked,” said Zhang.

To obtain a parking license, residents need only pay fees at their community property management service centers and record their vehicle information at the parking lot’s barrier gate system, Zhang said.

“People feel glad that they are charged less. And we feel glad that there are fewer parking disputes because of limited parking spaces,” said Zhang.