Shanghai has had a particularly tough time securing parking spaces for its registered car owners. (Photo : Reuters)
An intelligent system for parking lot management using a wireless sensor network is anticipated to gain a following in China once technical glitches related to sharing of parking areas are resolved, the Shanghai-based China Business News reported.
Getting a proper place to park has been a major problem in different cities in China, as commercial establishments such as shopping malls and office buildings have mushroomed, leading to a surge in traffic in these key areas.
The issue does not arise from the lack of parking spaces, but from the inaccessibility of information about convenient parking areas, according to the parking lot manager of a Beijing-based mansion compound. The manager shared that he recently discovered and tried downloading a smart parking mobile app that assists drivers in finding free parking spaces.
The new mobile app could also extremely lessen the total time spent searching for parking spaces in bustling locations such as hospitals, by informing drivers on the availability of spaces in nearby residential areas, according to the app's CEO Shen Auo.
For residential estate managers in neighborhoods, the major concern in operating parking lots would be the lack of transparency in soliciting parking fees.
For building administration and security guards, a rise in the sharing of parking slots will not raise labor costs and could even improve parking turnover, indirectly increasing their profits, according to Shen.
Before launching the smart parking scheme, however, the management of residential properties must first build up their software and hardware equipment at the entry and exit points of the properties, Shen said, stating that a lot of property managers are still thinking twice about such a change.
