The Shanghai city government has launched a new smartphone app on Tuesday that aims to make it easier for drivers to find spaces to park, according to a report by Shanghai Daily.
The program provides information on 3,300 car parks, including locations, charges and operating hours. The total number of spaces collated from the car parks, which range from multistory to streetside lots, are 300,000, according to Huang Xiaoyong, an official with Shanghai's transport commission.
For 300 of the car parks, the app also provides a real-time space availability report, Huang said.
"We hope to extend the real-time service to every car park in the city by the end of next year," said Huang, who added that the app is part of ongoing efforts by the city government to ease chronic congestion problems.
Official figures at the end of 2014 claim that there were only 1.1 million parking spaces within the city's Outer Ring Road to accommodate the 3.2 million cars registered in Shanghai.
The transport authority is also trying to expand the scope of the app to help tackle the issue of limited parking at residential compounds, Huang said.
In recent years, several apartment complexes have failed to keep up with the sharp increase in car ownership. This has resulted in the number of parking spaces falling short.
"According to the commission's figures, demand for parking at residential compounds is about 50 percent higher than the number of spaces available," said Huang.
Both Android and iOS smartphone users can download the app for free from this site.