Beijing needs to build at least one million automobile parking
spaces to cope with the city's rapid increase of motor vehicles, a
Chinese political advisor has said.
"The construction of parking spaces is lacked far behind the
growth of cars, especially private cars," said Liang Yanjun, a
member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The one million shortage of parking spaces was calculated based
on the international standard of one private parking area for each
private car and one public parking area for 15 cars, Liang
said.
"Many of the cars have to be parked along the streets, causing
traffic congestion and putting the owners at the risk of car
theft," Liang said in a proposal to the ongoing Fifth Session of
the 10th CPPCC National Committee.
The advisor pointed out that Beijing is not alone to suffer from
limited parking spaces as car booms are seen in most China's large
and medium-sized cities.
"Almost 80 percent of the streets in many large and medium-sized
cities face the problem of car parking," said Liang.
The advisor urged the government to build more public parking
lots to resolve the parking difficulties. She also suggested
authorities adopt favorable policies to attract more private
investment into the sector and enable investors to take back input
more quickly.
China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest market
for new vehicles in 2006 after the United States, registering the
sales of 7.22 million vehicles, up 25.13 percent year-on-year. But
many buildings, especially old ones, were designed without enough
parking places.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2007)