By Eric Jaffe
CityLab
Usually you buy a car and worry about where to park it later, but Beijing wants to put that process in reverse. Deputy Mayor Zhang Yankun reportedly announced that next year residents will have to show proof they have access to a parking spot before they can purchase a vehicle. The plan hopes to address the city’s extreme parking shortage in the face of soaring car-ownership.
Why now?
Beijing has already taken measures to reduce driving and congestion, awarding licenses via a lottery system since 2011. But the city remained home to nearly 5.6 million cars by the end of 2014, with the total number of parking spots estimated at just 2.9 million. That mismatch has led to a mad scramble for spaces that creates some terrible traffic congestion; here’s Bloomberg Business:
“Parking has become a problem in Beijing, and in many Chinese cities, as new office and shopping developments draw more traffic to the city center than there is parking space. Motorists often park illegally on side roads, or in residential compounds, blocking traffic and causing heated disputes.”
The city’s general lack of parking has produced some astronomical prices for a spot. Underground residential spaces in Beijing were going for the equivalent of $160,000 last year. Quartz reported that the situation was partly the result of older developments that lacked on-site parking and streets that prohibited curbside parking.
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