THE city will start charging for roadside parking, according to a draft plan released last week by the transportation commission. A maximum charge of 285 yuan (US$45) for roadside parking in the city center for 24 hours caused a splash once the plan was revealed. However, a hearing on the plan will be held by the city’s transportation commission Dec. 28, and the commission is now seeking feedback from citizens on the plan through mail at this address: szjtzczx@126.com.

    According to the plan, it will cost drivers 5 yuan for the first 30 minutes of roadside parking and 10 yuan for every additional 30 minutes between 7: 30 a.m. and 10 p.m. on business days.

    On non-business days, the fee will be 2 yuan for the first 30 minutes and 4 yuan for every additional 30 minutes.

    In other words, a driver who parks in a fee zone for the entire day would need to pay 285 yuan.

    The plan also said that a trial will be carried out in four designated areas including southern parts of Futian’s CBD, Nanshan’s CBD, Zhuzilin in Futian and Tianbei in Luohu District beginning from Jan. 1, 2014.

    The four areas are seen as the four of “the most crowded areas for roadside parking.” Will the plan help to ease illegal roadside parking in the areas?

    In the Zhuzilin area, where there are several large commercial buildings and residential communities, most of the roads had parked cars. “The roads are full of cars all the time. If the policemen come to give tickets, the cars will leave, but they will return in only a few days,” a convenience store cashier told local Chinese-language paper Daily Sunshine.

    The situation in Nanshan’s CBD is worse. Although an electronic board outside Coastal City showed that there were 425 vacancies in the parking lot, many drivers still chose to park their cars on the roads. “I fully support the draft plan, so that these drivers will park their cars in the lot and the roads will be cleared,” a pedestrian said.

    Futian’s CBD area is also full of cars in the daytime. “Most of the drivers park their cars on the road to avoid paying money. The legal parking areas are full since 6 a.m. every day, but the cars will leave at night,” a lawyer surnamed Zhao who works in the area said.

    A number of respondents said they would choose to park their cars in commercial buildings if the roadside parking fee hikes to more than 200 yuan per day. “But by then, the parking fee for commercial parking lots would be raised too,” a driver surnamed Wang said.

    The Tianbei area is one of the largest and oldest residential areas in the city, and most of the roads are blocked by cars every night. “The residential areas are too old and don’t have enough parking areas, so many people have to park their cars on the roads and drive the cars away when they go to work,” said a driver living in the area. “We have no choice. If the roadside parking fees are too high, we really don’t know where we can park our cars when we return home.”

    Experts thought that charging roadside parking was very necessary and the standards were “reasonable.”

    “Roadside parking blocks roads and causes traffic congestion, so it should charge more than parking lots. If it is more expensive than parking lots, people will park their cars in the lots, so there will be fewer cars on the roads,” said Zhang Lei, associate professor at the Graduate School at Shenzhen of Tsinghua University.

    However, many residents say the fees will be too high.

    A survey conducted by www.sznews.com showed that about 55 percent of the 667 respondents objected to the roadside parking fees, and although the remaining 45 percent supported the plan, they still thought the fees were too high.

    “Many indoor parking lots only charge 250 yuan a month, but it costs 285 yuan a day for roadside parking. If I park near my office building for eight hours, I have to pay at least 155 yuan a day. That’s ridiculous,” a driver surnamed Xu said.

    Many residents thought that high parking fees could help ease road conditions on some level in busy and well-facilitated areas, but it could not solve residents’ parking problems in residential areas.

    “Charging high fees cannot solve the congestion problem in long-term development. The more effective way to ease congestion is to improve the city’s public transportation network, such as construction of bus routes and metros. If the network is good enough, a lot of drivers will choose to take public transportation and use their cars only when necessary,” Zhang said.

    (Wang Yuanyuan)