City's drivers are parking mad

The amount of available parking in Beijing is at crisis point, with fake traffic attendants impersonating legal parking staff to fleece drivers, who are fighting for space which is half of the city's needs.

Local authorities, who so far have struggled to stamp out the practice, have said they will introduce measures to tackle the problem.

Fake parking staff charge drivers as much to park as in official spaces, but they are not registered with the government, the Beijing Times reported on Monday.

An entrepreneur can fake a parking area for as little as 1,000 yuan ($158.50) to make it look real, and then can expect profits of over 1,000 yuan a day. Fake parking spaces look so similar to real ones, city management staff have a hard time telling them apart, the report said.

Beijing Municipal Bureau of City Administration and Law Enforcement yesterday told the Global Times that it is the bureau's duty to find and punish any illegal parking companies.

According to the bureau's press release, they plan legislation to tackle the problem, as well as a plan laying out where cars can be legally parked.

Meanwhile, drivers are left with limited choice, but high expenses.

At a parking area between the East Third and Fourth Ring Roads in Chaoyang district, operated by Jindi Tonglian parking company, a 33-year-old driver, surnamed Wang, paid 60 yuan for three hours parking for two cars.

"I've heard about illegal parking spaces. There are far from enough legal spaces, but illegal ones may not be any cheaper," said Wang, who did not think his car would be taken good care of in an illegal space.

Three guards who were watching the area where Wang's car was parked seemed alert. They told the Global Times that they just took the job for several days.

"I only came here three days ago," one of the guards said.

The guards' supervisor, surnamed Jiang, who rode past on his bicycle, said the spaces were legal.

"Our company contracted this area [with 30 parking spaces] a year ago, but before that there was an illegal parking company here," he said.

There are now over five million cars in Beijing, but only 2.48 million parking spaces, and only 55,000 official roadside parking spaces, the Beijing News reported.