The number of motor vehicles has exploded, and the contradiction between parking supply and demand in first-tier cities is prominent
Solving the Parking Difficulty: An Important Part of Urban Governance
Our reporter Han Yadong Li Yunshu
On July 11, the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress convened a meeting to supervise the proposal of the representatives to solve the problem of parking difficulties.
The heads of the six departments of the province met with the deputies of the National People's Congress face to face to listen to their opinions on solving the problem of parking difficulties.
At present, the number of motor vehicles in Jiangsu Province has reached 24.98 million, including about 19 million cars, and the gap of parking spaces is about 3 million.
Difficulty parking has become a common problem faced by urban development, and it is also one of the problems that the masses are "urgent and anxious".
Although the parking problem is small, it is a big livelihood.
What is the reason for the difficulty of parking in the city?
How to solve this "urban disease" with the right medicine?
The reporter interviewed Zhao Zhen, director of the Static Traffic Management Department of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation, Fang Jiming, secretary and director of Hangzhou Rail Public Center, and Wei Chenglin, associate professor of the School of Politics and International Relations of Tongji University.
There are a lot of outstanding debts in planning history, limited increment of land and facilities, and rapid growth of motor vehicles, resulting in a prominent contradiction between parking supply and demand
Reporter: Why is it difficult to park?
How big is the shortage of basic parking spaces in first-tier cities?
Zhao Zhen: With the rapid development of my country's economy and the accelerating process of urbanization, people's living standards are improving day by day, the demand for motor vehicles is rising, the number of motor vehicles is becoming saturated, and the supply of infrastructure is insufficient, resulting in a prominent contradiction between parking supply and demand .
Taking Beijing as an example, the 2016 census of parking resources showed that there was a gap of 1.29 million residential parking spaces (basic parking spaces) in the city’s urban areas, of which 850,000 in the central urban area.
Although residential parking spaces have increased in recent years through measures such as comprehensive policies, revitalization of stock, and potential construction, the contradiction between supply and demand is still prominent, and problems such as difficult parking and disorder still exist.
On the supply side, first, the planning history has a lot of debts.
Before 1994, there was no requirement for the allocation of residential parking in Beijing. From 1994 to 2003, the allocation index for residential areas was only 0.1 per household, and from 2003 to 2015, the allocation index was 0.3 to 0.5 per household, and increased after 2015. To 0.3-1.3/household, but at present, the average number of motor vehicles per household in our city has reached 0.7/household, and the original planned parking spaces are far from meeting the demand.
Second, land is scarce, and the increment of facilities is limited.
As a mega city with a population of over 10 million, Beijing is very scarce in land resources.
At the same time, Beijing adopts the idea of reducing the amount of urban and rural construction land. Currently, new residential projects are prohibited in the core area. Large-scale public construction projects such as hotels and office buildings are prohibited within the east, west, north fifth ring road and south fourth ring road. The space for additional parking facilities is extremely limited (the parking facilities are mainly from the auxiliary construction), the possibility of large-scale construction of parking facilities is small, and the increase of parking land is very limited.
In terms of demand, the first is the rapid growth of motor vehicles.
Since 2000, the number of motor vehicles in Beijing has grown explosively, tripled in 10 years. When the purchase restriction policy was implemented in 2011, the number of motor vehicles had reached 4.98 million.
Even if the current purchase restriction policy is implemented, the number of motor vehicles is still increasing at a rate of 100,000 vehicles per year, and the contradiction between parking supply and demand will be further intensified.
Second, the awareness of parking concepts has yet to be cultivated.
Everyone generally believes that their own cars should be parked at the door of the house, even at a low price and free of charge, and the concept of consciously maintaining the parking order is not strong.
Reporter: In the big cities, which areas are the most prominent in the phenomenon of "one person being hard to find"?
Zhao Zhen: At present, the most prominent "parking difficulties" in Beijing are old communities and hutong districts.
The main manifestations are: low internal parking construction standards, serious shortage of parking space supply, and many overflow parking vehicles; relatively weak internal (property) parking management, and even whether there is a parking management area, vehicles are parked at will, and vehicles are free to enter and exit, resulting in more foreign vehicles. Parking is difficult and the problem of parking chaos is even more difficult to alleviate.
Fang Jiming: The most prominent problem of parking in big cities is the core area, especially the surrounding areas such as old communities, hospitals, commercial complexes, and scenic spots in the core area.
Taking Hangzhou as an example, there are commercial complexes, hospitals, old communities and scenic spots in the Wulin business district and Hubin business district in the core area. With the development of public transportation, the problem of parking difficulties has been alleviated to a certain extent, but still exist.
Wei Chenglin: The spatial layout of production and living divisions in big cities enables citizens to flow in a "tidal" style every day.
Stops and stops in the flow of urban population will generate parking needs. Some needs can be eliminated in the flow, while others become indigestible "blocking points and pain points".
The denser the space and time, the scarcer the parking space.
For example, schools and vegetable markets are usually difficult to park at certain times, while hospitals, downtown attractions, and shopping malls are "hard to find" almost all day.
The key problems behind the difficulty of parking are that the private nature of parking resources is too strong, the sharing system is not perfect, and the fine governance is not in place.
Reporter: Why is there a phenomenon that the parking facilities are not used efficiently while parking is difficult?
Wei Chenglin: "It is difficult to park outside the wall, and the parking space inside the wall is idle" has always existed in major cities.
The key problems behind the parking difficulties are that the private nature of parking resources is too strong, the sharing system is not perfect, and the fine governance is not in place.
At the current stage, potential expansion and space sharing are feasible paths to resolve parking difficulties.
Exploiting potential and expanding capacity refers to the transformation of abandoned, idle and underutilized corner spaces into parking spaces through micro-renovation of residential quarters, under viaducts, roads and other spaces to increase parking space resources.
Space sharing refers to the sharing of idle parking space resources in a specific area and a specific period of time with the society.
The parking spaces of enterprises, institutions, commercial buildings and other departments are usually idle during non-working hours, while the parking resources of residential quarters are usually idle during working hours.
If the parking space usage rights of the two types of spaces flow with the flow of population, a considerable part of the parking problem can be resolved.
Fang Jiming: Behind the difficulty of parking, there are not only the problem of insufficient supply and demand of parking resources, but also the problem of guiding people's transportation.
In some non-core areas, the basic conditions such as land resources are relatively good, and the planning and construction of parking facilities are sufficient or even ahead of time. However, because the surrounding residential, office, and commercial atmospheres are still gradually being formed, the parking demand is relatively small or there are obvious tidal phenomena. , resulting in insufficient utilization.
In the core area, due to the scarcity of land resources, the original plan could not meet the needs of economic and social development, resulting in limited supply of public parking facilities, and the dedicated parking facilities could not be effectively adjusted due to various reasons, which eventually led to the basic parking demand in the core area. be effectively supplied.
Therefore, it is necessary to carry out scientific planning and moderate advanced planning on the basis of fully considering the integration of industry and city.
Reporter: Who is in charge of the parking problem?
What role should the government play in this?
Wei Chenglin: The problem of difficult parking is a comprehensive problem. Whether it can be solved well depends on two subjects: the subject of space ownership and the subject of space management.
The former mainly includes units, shopping malls, community owners, etc. The latter mainly includes government departments such as traffic management, urban management, housing construction, land and land, and property companies responsible for vehicle parking management.
The problem of difficult parking is not unsolvable. The key is to break through the barriers of resources, information, and institutions, so as to realize the full supply of resources and the effective use of resources.
In specific parking management, municipal government departments are mainly responsible for formulating rules, district government departments and streets are the main body of law enforcement, and communities and communities are the layers that understand the situation best but can mobilize the least resources.
The ideal state is that the municipal government has clear rules, the district government and street law enforcement are effective, and the community and community have the ability to coordinate and deal with special problems at the end, and provide convenient parking services for residents.
Fang Jiming: To solve the problem of urban parking difficulties requires not only the visible hand of the government to ensure people's basic parking needs, but also the invisible hand of the market to enrich and adjust the parking needs of different groups of people and different areas.
From the perspective of the government, it is necessary to start from the two aspects of "increasing supply and reducing demand" until the parking supply and demand are basically balanced.
"Increasing supply" means doing everything possible to make good use of the stock and expand the increment.
It is necessary to do a good job in top-level design, combined with urban development planning, and do a good job in the planning and construction of parking facilities; do a good job in policy guarantees, encourage social capital to participate in the construction of parking facilities, and increase the supply of parking facilities; Process reengineering, applying digital means, integrating dynamic and static traffic information, breaking through data barriers, efficiently revitalizing existing parking resources, and feeding back planning, construction, and traffic management.
"Reducing demand" means reducing the frequency of purchase and use of private cars by citizens.
Strengthen the construction of the public transportation system to provide people with a more convenient, fast and comfortable public transportation environment; increase publicity efforts to gradually change people's concepts of travel mode and parking facility sharing; make good use of price lever adjustment mechanisms, such as The inclination of parking fees and related taxes and fees for the second and above vehicles in the family, and the increase of congestion fees in traffic "dilemma" areas.
Zhao Zhen: At present, the vitality of my country's parking market has not been fully stimulated. The investment and construction return cycle of enterprises is long, and the motivation is insufficient. People are less willing to pay for parking in compliance with regulations. .
In this context, parking enterprises are generally small in scale, scattered in distribution, low in standardization, and insufficient in market vitality, resulting in problems such as low operating efficiency, low service level, and low anti-risk ability.
At this stage, the government should lay a solid foundation for market-oriented development at the policy level and encourage it.
Mechanisms that restrict market-oriented development such as ownership and land system should be solved, and a market-oriented foundation should be laid; by compressing "welfare parking" and illegal parking, promoting the formation of market-oriented parking demand and leveraging the parking industry; the rapid development of "Internet +" It also brings opportunities for the parking industry. The government can promote the aggregation of scattered parking resource information, and encourage market players to optimize the allocation of parking resources through informatization and intelligent means.
Parking difficulties are an important part of urban governance, and a strong coordination mechanism must be established on the basis of the participation of the whole society and each department performing its own duties.
Reporter: There are many functional departments involved in urban parking management. What problems will this bring and how should we deal with them?
Wei Chenglin: In some places, urban parking management involves many functional departments but few effective and effective supervision.
The main manifestations are: lack of top-level design, many places manage parking lots in the form of government documents, and a few places have issued local regulations on parking management; multiple departments are managed, involving urban management, housing construction, development and reform, public security, and market supervision. and other departments; there are blind spots in supervision.
Fang Jiming: The problem of parking difficulties is an important link in urban traffic management, involving the government, society, individuals and other aspects. It cannot be solved by one department alone. Through the establishment of a strong coordination mechanism to coordinate progress.
Taking Hangzhou as an example, by formulating the "Hangzhou Motor Vehicle Parking Lot (Gallery) Construction and Management Measures", we have detailed and clarified the work responsibilities of each functional department in urban parking planning, construction and management; Coordination agencies (Municipal Congestion Control Office, Municipal Parking Office), from the municipal government level, make overall plans for the governance of traffic congestion and parking difficulties, and continuously strengthen departmental collaboration; build a platform and build a unified platform for parking information in Hangzhou, the "Urban Brain Parking System", Realize the full sharing of information from planning, construction, public security and traffic police, development and reform, urban management and other departments as well as parking lot information.
At present, the unified platform for parking information in Hangzhou has connected to more than 5,100 parking lots (points) and more than 1.45 million berths, of which more than 3,600 toll parking lots (points) and more than 780,000 berths have been opened to the public, which have basically covered them all; There are more than 1,500 special parking lots (points) and more than 670,000 berths.
Reporter: Under the national conditions where land resources are very precious, how to solve the problem of parking difficulties through the reasonable setting, use and management of parking spaces?
Zhao Zhen: The area required for parking a car is almost the same as the per capita living area in cities and towns in my country, indicating that parking facilities consume a lot of land resources and are destined to be scarce resources.
In this regard, the first is to strengthen demand research, judgment and matching.
Parking demand has dual attributes of time and space. In the layout and planning of parking facilities, it is necessary to fully consider the characteristics of demand, allocate resources reasonably, strengthen resource sharing (complex utilization of land), and minimize resource redundancy and waste.
The second is to optimize the land use and approval links in the construction of parking facilities. Especially in my country, the urban renewal is relatively fast, and some parking facilities are temporary. It is more necessary to shorten the process and speed up the construction.
In terms of management, the first is to enforce the law in place, cultivate the concept of "parking in place, pay for parking, and be punished for illegal parking", increase the cost of illegal parking, and promote the formation of market-oriented parking demand; The renovation of old residential areas will promote the comprehensive realization of parking fee management in residential areas, and squeeze the demand for off-street residential welfare parking. It integrates with application fields, improves the utilization efficiency of facilities through information means, and provides convenient, fast, accurate and efficient integrated travel services.
In recent years, Beijing has promoted comprehensive parking management through the reform of road parking, which preliminarily shows that regional comprehensive parking management is an important way to alleviate the problem of parking difficulties by adjusting measures to local conditions and coordinating resources.
Specific measures include "potential tapping within the community, sharing at different times, surrounding potential tapping construction, temporary parking on roads", etc.
Potential exploration within the community is the first priority. Inside the residential area, a considerable part of the open land, corner land, and land that has lost its greening function has the potential to be standardized. The second is sharing at the wrong time. More than 60% of the parking spaces of public buildings in Beijing at night are 80% of the idle ones are within 500 meters around the residential area, which is very beneficial for staggered sharing; the third is to build additional parking facilities around the residential area. For example, there are no parking spaces in some hutong areas. With the help of hutongs, streets, etc., temporary parking lots have been set up at the hutong ports by demolition of illegally vacated land for hutong residents to park; fourth, road resources have been properly utilized. Since 2019, Beijing has implemented road parking reforms (standardized settings, electronic toll collection, strict law enforcement ), and simultaneously carry out on-street parking and residential certification. Currently, more than 60,000 residential vehicles have been certified, using on-street parking spaces to solve the problem of residential parking.
Fang Jiming: First, we must pay attention to the scientific rationality of planning, and dynamically adjust the planning layout in light of the actual urban development.
The second is to expand parking facilities according to local conditions. Taking Hangzhou as an example, the "Hangzhou Motor Vehicle Parking Lot (Gallery) Construction and Management Measures" clearly states that in areas with prominent contradictions between parking supply and demand, on the premise of not affecting traffic and safety, it can be used. Temporary parking lots are set up in public spaces such as open spaces. According to statistics, more than 1,500 such parking facilities have been set up in Hangzhou at present, which alleviates the surrounding parking difficulties to a certain extent.
The third is to regulate the use and management of parking spaces.
Hangzhou City is organizing the formulation of local standards for parking lot operation and management services, hoping to provide citizens with a good parking environment and experience by formulating unified operation and management service standards.
The fourth is to make full use of the existing parking resources.
Hangzhou has successively launched a series of convenience measures such as "pay after departure" and parking guidance, striving to make good use of the existing parking resources.