Comment

Higher parking fees will not solve congestion issues

By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-04 10:25

The Beijing municipal commission of development and reform has made public a new scheme on car-parking fees in some commercial areas, including Wangfujing and Yansha. According to the plan, to become effective in April, the current 2.5 yuan car-parking fee for half an hour will be doubled. Fees longer than one hour will be raised to 15 yuan per hour.

The municipal government apparently hopes the new regulation will serve as a leverage to tune up traffic flow, ease traffic congestion in key areas, and encourage citizens to use public transport.

However, I don't think it's reasonable to increase parking fees. There are some questions we need to answer first.

First, could higher car-parking fees really ease traffic congestion? By increasing the cost of driving a private car, some in the municipal government may want to urge private car owners to opt for public transport. This wish is too good to be true.

It is very unlikely that those who can afford to buy a car will drive less just because of a small fee hike for parking. Compared with higher taxi fare and crowded subway, private car owners would still prefer to drive their own cars.

In recent years, taxes and fees for owing a car have kept increasing. Concerned government bodies have used the leverage of fee hikes a lot to relieve traffic congestion. However, I haven't seen much improvement in the city's traffic.

Fee hikes should not be applied again and again. It is also wrong to conclude that the current cost of owning a car is not high enough and there is room for more rises.

Second, the root cause of traffic congestion doesn't lie in there being too many cars. Another important reason we have to take into account is that the government's public service doesn't keep pace with hiking numbers of automobiles.

The supply of car-parking lots is insufficient. And the design of motorways also has problems. Private car owners should not take all the blame for worsening traffic conditions. Citizens are paying so much tax and fees for owing a car.

Last but not the least, as citizens are paying so much tax and fees for owing a car and the numerous parking lots are charging hundreds of millions of yuan in fees each year, what has this money been used for? Concerned departments owe us a clear answer.

Before we address all these problems, it's unreasonable to increase parking fees again.

(Excerpts of a commentary that appeared in the Beijing News on Feb 3.)