Beijing-parking-ITDP-China

3.3.3 Cheniandian Hutongmechanical parkingThe mechanical parking lot in CheniandianHutong was initiated and financed by theDongcheng district and opened in mid-2012.It was the first mechanical parking lot in thehutongs of Beijing and aimed at solving chaoticparking in the hutong’s alleyways, in this areaeast of Houhai Lake. The underground parkinghas four storeys (3 floors underground, 1 flooron-ground) and consists of 193 parking spacesat two adjacent sites. It charges 300 RMB/monthfor the Hutong’s residents and 800 RMB/monthor 2 RMB/15min for outsiders. Operation isdone by Dongfang Jielu parking managment, astate-owned company. Users need an RFID cardto activate the machine that lifts cars in and out ofthe lots.The Planning Bureau never approved theconstruction, because the parking lots are built onspace designated for road use, but the Dongchengdistrict government pushed it through by classifyingit as ‘temporary parking spaces’. The BeijingPlanning Society claims the costs were 22,000RMB per parking space. The project team suspectsthat the actual costs are significantly higher andthe opportunity costs of valuable downtown spaceis also not taken into account.Aerial view of Cheniandian mechanical parkingSource: Beijing Urban Planning Society (2012),Dongcheng district Cheniandian parking building, inBeijing City Planning Formation magazineAerial view shows mechanical lifts with four parkingspaces (in yellow), on-ground parking spaces (in lightred) and directions for entrance (bright red) and exit(blue)Source: Beijing Urban Planning Society (2012),Dongcheng district Cheniandian parking building, inBeijing City Planning Formation magazineEach lift contains four parking spaces, of which one atground floorMany vacancies were identified in the mechanicalparking lot, where the illegal parking outside proved tobe fullBeijing Parking, ITDP-China 851 March 2015