Gao Sheng, a 32-year-old businessman, faces the daily nightmare of driving up and down Nanjing Xilu, one of the city's busiest roads, for half an hour trying to find a parking space.

But this regular chore will soon become a thing of the past with the launch of a new pilot project that allows commuters to book a parking space in one of the 100 parking facilities downtown over the Internet.

By the end of this June, the online reservation on an empty space will be available for drivers, the local traffic administration revealed.

Such a service will be the first of its kind in China.

Altogether 220 parking facilities including the 100 already mentioned, have reached an agreement with the traffic administration to put all their information, such as the latest number of vacant parking spaces in each facility and their price per hour, on a website constructed by the administration.

The facilities are mainly located in Huangpu, Jingan and Xuhui districts, where the city's commercial areas are found and consequently traffic congestion is commonplace.

Liu Min, a spokesman for the Municipal Traffic Administration Bureau, said: "We hope this information will better guide drivers to find parking spaces in a shorter period of time, which in turn will effectively alleviate traffic jams."

Insiders revealed that the administration would help the parking facilities release their information free of charge.

Online reservation

However, officials refused to disclose how much online reservation would cost, saying: "As it is pilot project, we are still conducting surveys."

Wu Renyuan, an official from the traffic bureau, said: "To date, there are altogether 144,000 spaces in the 1,506 parking facilities in Shanghai, and the majority of the facilities - over 800 - are located inside the inner ring viaduct."

Experts have estimated that a website showing real-time information on all the parking facilities can be completed by the year 2010.

In fact, the placing of electronic boards showing the latest parking lot information on the major roads in Huangpu District, another part of the pilot project, has already eased congestion, according to the experts.

The electronic boards have improved the efficiency of the facilities in Huangpu by 15 percent.

(China Daily June 22, 2005)