City amends rules to ease parking pains

To ease the shortage of parking space in downtown Shanghai, local authorities have been allowed to set up temporary curbside parking lots.

The new measure aims to solve the parking problem at night when roads have less traffic and more space, said Shanghai traffic administration today, citing newly amended parking regulations that will come into effect next year.

But the parking problem which has been a headache for Shanghai for years is unlikely to go away anytime soon, it added.

The administration has established temporary parking lots on 620 roads. Many of them are off-limits to vehicles at night.

Shanghai currently has nearly 390,000 public parking spaces, about 300,000 short of the need, said Zhou Huai, deputy director of the Shanghai Transport and Port Administration.

Residential complexes are encouraged to make agreements with office buildings nearby to use their parking lots at night.