Cars, cars everywhere but not a spot to park

Finding a spot to park one's car has become a thorny problem in many Chinese cities.

According to international urbanization standards, cities should have 10 to 20 percent more parking spaces than vehicles. In China however, there are an average of five cars for every parking space; although in some major urban centers there could be as many as 31 vehicles for every spot, according to figures from Qianzhan Intelligence Co Ltd, a Shenzhen-based industry research institute.

While the explosive growth of the domestic auto industry and the emergence of a prosperous Chinese middle class have put an enormous number of cars on the country's roads in recent years, developers have proven reluctant to build facilities for parking these vehicles.

The issue of parking has long been ignored by the government as well, as planners and officials for the most part have just concentrated on producing cars rather than figuring out where to put them when they aren't in use.

For the past decade or so, China's property developers have been fixated almost exclusively on the lucrative residential and commercial property market. Most firms have done the bare minimum when it has come to creating parking spots, preferring to brush the matter aside in favor of projects which produce higher returns.

Meanwhile, the urban areas where there is the greatest need for parking are crowded with buildings, leaving little room for new parking grounds.

Under these circumstances, the central government - which did so much to encourage the country's auto boom in the first place - should step in and encourage local authorities to subsidize the establishment of more parking areas, which all too often fail to get off the ground due to a lack of funding in the initial stages of construction.

At the same time, developers and city planners should work cooperatively to make the most of the urban space and the financial resources at their disposal by building parking towers instead of sprawling lots or scattered spaces. On average, a parking tower that occupies an area of 50 square meters and contains 50 parking spaces only requires 4 million yuan ($632,033) to build, while a flat parking area with 50 spaces can cover up 1,650 square meters and require 7.5 million yuan to build.

With much of China's current parking crisis stemming from government and developers' neglect, it is only right that these two sides should step forward - one with the funding, and the other with the construction know-how - to resolve this issue.