HCMC – The HCMC government is planning to set up several multi-story smart car-parking structures on a temporary basis to satisfy the parking demands.
The Department of Transport is looking for sites to set up smart parking structures, apart from continuing to collect roadside parking fees, Head of the Roads Management Center Ngo Hai Duong told the media on August 30.
There are several suitable locations for smart parking structures in the city, including 23-9 Park, Le Van Tam Park and Tao Dan Park. If feasible, it won’t take too long to seek approval from the HCMC People’s Committee.
The parking structures won’t take up much space, will have low operating and installation costs and can be easily installed and upgraded.
“We can increase the number of parking spaces by assembling the parking blocks together,” Ngo Hai Duong added.
In 2017, the HCMC People’s Committee rejected proposals on setting up multi-story parking lots in the parks and vacant land in the city. The authority encouraged investors to build parking garages at the city’s gateways.
More than 10 years ago, HCMC planned to build four underground parking lots in Trong Dong Theater area, Le Van Tam Park, Tao Dan Park and Hoa Lu Stadium. However, none of them have been executed due to a lack of investment.
The central area of HCMC has currently suffered a serious lack of parking spaces. The number of parking lots here only meets some 7% of the demand.
Many roads and sidewalks, especially in the city center, have been turned into motorbike and car parking lots, causing problems for traffic safety and urban order.
Sad to see this saga roll on. There are some very large spaces in the city that have been cleared by developers and left empty for years that would be perfect for such facilities on a temporary basis – such as the huge plot near the riverfront ’roundabout’ on Hai Ba Trung and the site of the Tax Centre that there was so much urgency to demolish 5 (?) years ago.
Cars should be discouraged from entering the city centre, however there is a dire need for parking to reduce congestion and scammer street food vendors blocking legitimate parking spaces and charging motorists a fee to create a space is a common problem.
So if these structures are cheap and easy to build and relocate, then force developers to install them on unused land and set fees high enough to deter people from unnecessary use. Revenue can be shared.