Individuals Encouraged to Build Parking Lots in Beijing

The Beijing municipal government is encouraging individuals to invest in-of all things-building parking lots. It recently said it needs all parties' efforts to help provide thousands of much-needed parking spaces in the densely¹ populated metropolis².

Let's take a closer look with reporter Liu Min.

 
The Beijing municipal government is now soliciting³ public opinion on a newly revised regulation concerning the management of automobile⁴ parking issues. The new policy encourages individuals, companies and even city administrative⁵ bureaus to invest in the building of new parking lots or open their existing spaces to the public and allow them to make profit on parking fees.

Professor Shi Jing from the Traffic Issue Research Center at Tsinghua University says the new policy indicates the local government's resolution to resolve Beijing's traffic problems.

"This has shown a kind of progress in traffic management in Beijing. This is also something that we have to deal with now. The number of parking spaces is far fewer than the number of vehicles in the huge city."

According to data from the Beijing municipal government, the number of parking spaces is less than half the number of registered vehicles in the city. In recent years, the city's leaders have come up with a series of traffic control policies, including traffic restriction⁶ measures, limits on car purchases, and an increase in parking fees in downtown areas. But the overall lack of parking spaces and traffic congestion⁷ seem to problematic to overcome.

"It's very difficult to find a place to park in my community if I get home late. Sometimes I have no choice but to park the car by blocking others' passages. So I have to stick my phone number on the windshield so that my neighbors can call me to move my car if they need access."

"I have to ride a bike to work now and only drive my car during weekends."

In the draft regulation, the Beijing municipal government has suggested lowering the amount of money required to build new parking lots or expand existing ones. It also plans to increase parking fees for roadside spaces and use the proceeds to hire more workers to manage existing parking lots.

The municipal government has also come up with the new idea of shared parking spaces. Take a hospital and its nearby residential⁸ community for example. Hospital employees can park their cars in nearby residential communities during the day so that more spaces are available for patients. During the night, some of the hospital's parking spaces can be made available to residents of nearby communities. Such a system will not only ease parking pressure but also help reduce parking expenses.

One Beijing resident who must drive his car to work every day complains about the increasing parking fees.

"The cost of parking cars is very high in this city. If you choose to park your car in underground parking lots, then you need to spend 800 yuan per month. It costs you at least six yuan per hour above ground. If you arrive a little late, you can't find a place to park even if you have enough money to pay for a space."

While many western countries have multilevel parking garages, such facilities are rare in Beijing because of a lack of overall city planning and adequate investment.

To encourage more individual investors⁹ and businesses to invest in parking lot construction, the Beijing municipal government has pledged to provide financial incentives¹⁰ to help reduce the cost of land fees. In the past, most property developers have chosen to build houses instead of parking lots because of their concerns about whether they could earn high enough returns on their investment.

Some traffic experts believe that the municipal government's new regulations and incentives will entice¹¹ more individuals and companies to build new parking lots in Beijing.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.

1 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

2 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

3 soliciting   

v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求

参考例句：

• A prostitute was soliciting on the street. 一名妓女正在街上拉客。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• China Daily is soliciting subscriptions. 《中国日报》正在征求订户。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

5 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

6 restriction   

n.限制，约束

参考例句：

• The park is open to the public without restriction.这个公园对公众开放，没有任何限制。
• The 30 mph speed restriction applies in all built-up areas.每小时限速30英里适用于所有建筑物聚集区。

7 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

8 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

9 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

10 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

11 entice   

v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿

参考例句：

• Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
• I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白，为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。