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Building a smart car park to increase metered parking spaces in Yau Tsim Mong District was among the calls from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) to solve the parking shortage problem in the vicinity.

This came after the party organized focus group meetings in Yau Tsim Mong in April, which over 70 people attended. Some shared that there are insufficient parking spaces within the district, as the multi-storey car parks at Middle Road and Yau Ma Tei were demolished, reducing the number of parking spaces by more than 1,000.

In a press conference on Monday (Jun 2), the party suggested that the government build a smart car park under the backfilled site of the Central Kowloon Route project at the intersection of Kansu Street and Shanghai Street to increase the metered parking space in the district.

It also suggested opening up parking spaces at government premises and buildings, including the West Kowloon Government Offices, for public use.

In the long run, the government could include provisions in land deeds that require developers to provide parking spaces in large-scale redevelopment projects, and consider adjusting plot ratios to encourage private developers to increase the supply of parking spaces.

Lawmaker Vincent Cheng Wing-shun noted that police officers from the West Kowloon Region issued over 870,000 parking tickets last year, which constitutes one-third of the city's total number of parking tickets.

He said the insufficient parking spaces and fine tickets are lowering citizens' consumption incentives and expected increasing parking lots would boost the district economy.

(Nathan Lim)

DAB proposes adding 200 parking spaces in Yau Tsim Mong district