Shareable parking spaces emerge in Chinese cities

A parking lot sharing mobile application is gaining popularity among white-collar workers in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, amid China's sharing economy boom.

Searching for parking spaces has long been a headache for many office workers in metropolises across China. Especially for those working in central business districts in first- and second-tier cities, parking near their companies for five days a week could cost them a fortune.

Meanwhile, even with prices for parking lots in residential areas soaring, most of their spaces remain unoccupied during workdays.

A parking lot sharing mobile application is gaining popularity among white-collar workers in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, amid China's sharing economy boom.

Searching for parking spaces has long been a headache for many office workers in metropolises across China. Especially for those working in central business districts in first- and second-tier cities, parking near their companies for five days a week could cost them a fortune.

Meanwhile, even with prices for parking lots in residential areas soaring, most of their spaces remain unoccupied during workdays.

Li said the revenue will be distributed between the application, property management companies and the owners of the parking lots.

Such applications have also emerged in many other cities across the country, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. According to Liu Changjiang, head of the Beijing Parking Industry Association, Beijing is also working on a plan to encourage sharing parking spaces.

About 25 to 30 percent of the parking lots in Beijing are left idle, and by sharing parking spaces, the lack of parking lots will be eased and the utilization rate will also be much elevated, said Xie Guangzheng, an official of Beijing Transport Institute.