A Chinese security stands guard at an underground parking lot for women only at a shopping mall in Shijiazhuang city, north China's Hebei province, on December 30, 2009. Each parking space is one meter wider than a normal one, said an official of the shopping mall, named Wonder Mall. The pink and purple-colored underground facilities are also equipped with surveillance cameras. [Photo/IC]

The government of Jinan in East China's Shandong province solicited public views on how to strengthen the regulations covering parking in the city. Xinhua.net commented on Monday:

The aim of the stricter regulations is to end the chaotic parking in the city. However, some large and medium-sized cities already strictly punish drivers for parking illegally but this has failed to improve the situation; the bottleneck is a serious shortage of parking spaces.

According to the Jinan municipal parking inventory last year, 741,500 parking spaces were needed in the city while the revenue from charging drivers to park remained low. Increasing the number of parking lots will undoubtedly ease the pressure from chaotically parked vehicles and ring in more revenue.

Good management stems from adequate research. Before making any policy, a thorough inventory of the existing parking space allocation is necessary to find out how many spaces are needed and where.

Strict punishments for drivers who don't park vehicles in a proper space will not solve the chaotic parking situation. The fundamental solution is still rooted in offering more spaces where drivers can park.