Parking lots at department stores and supermarkets are to be extensively renovated to make them more driver-friendly.

According to plans released on Tuesday, all large commercial lots and garages will this year be fitted with parking guidance systems, which can automatically count vacant spaces and direct motorists.

By the end of 2015, officials with the capital's commerce commission also hope to have 90 percent of the lots rebuilt to allow more space, including 95 percent of those within the Second Ring Road.

Related readings:  'Search engine' to ease parking wrangle  Drivers get online to find parking spaces in Beijing  Car owners camp overnight for parking  Residents mad after being driven from parking garage

The project, which is still under discussion, follows complaints from shoppers about the difficultly in finding spaces for their cars. Many people also claim the position of the lots' entrances and exits contribute to the city's chronic congestion.

Computer program designer Feng Zhi, 28, said he frequently gets caught in traffic on his way home in rush hours outside the Carrefour store in Chongwen district because its parking entrance is adjacent to the crossroads of Guangqumennei Dajie and Nanxiaoshi Lu.

"The entrance should be moved to a quieter road around the supermarket, otherwise there'll always be traffic jams at this crossroads," he said. "Shoppers waste lots of time squeezing their cars in. There are lots of angry horns."

Guards working as parking attendants also complained that people do not always listen to their instructions, which causes severe holdups in lots with one-way lanes.

"It's my job to stand here and tell drivers whether they should go further inside to look for a slot or go to the floor below. Sadly, not many drivers take me seriously," said an attendant called Wu at IKEA Beijing. "Everyone prefers to park on the first two floors to save time getting to the market."

Yet, drivers say the information they are given is not always accurate.

"Every time I visit the (IKEA) store I see a board saying 'no vacancies' on the basement level, but experience tells me it's probably not full," said bank clerk Zhang Xing, 36.

Li Juanjuan, 29, who works near Wangfujing, said: "I hate going below the ground level each time I shop at Wangfujing department store because the spiraling lanes make me feel dizzy."

Another frustration is the fact that people working in the area often occupy the most convenient slots.

"Most office workers only come and go to the building once in a day, but there are hundreds of shoppers like me coming and leaving every hour. Don't we deserve more convenient slots?"

Zheng Shi, deputy chief architect at Beijing Architecture Design Research Institute, told METRO that parking projects usually involve building new garages or installing tri-dimensional machines to allow several cars to be stacked in one spot.

Wang Wen contributed to the story.