Free parking
- Source: Global Times
- [15:28 April 09 2011]
- Comments
A parking lot employee guides a government car to park at a lot on Jingwen Jie near the CBD Thursday. Photo: Wang Zi/GT
By Li Yanhui
Beijing authorities denied Thursday that government cars are issued special certificates allowing them free parking in response to pictures of a purported pass that circulated online, but it appears many lots still cut official vehicles some slack.
A photo of a "free parking certificate" in a car was posted on the xcar.com.cn forum by a blogger with the ID "spadeaaaa" on Tuesday. Text on the pass identified it as a "certificate allowing Beijing government cars to park for free." It appeared to be issued by several municipal government departments and bore the seal of the Beijing Capital Highway Development Group Co. Ltd (BCHD).
"The certificate must be fake," an official with the Party Committee Work Department of the BCHD told the Global Times Thursday on condition of anonymity. He said the company is mainly involved in expressway construction and toll charging and has nothing to do with urban parking fees. He also pointed out that his company's name was written wrong, and that another bureau listed on the permit no longer exists.
The Guangming Daily reported on Tuesday that the certificate was found in a private car at the Beishatan compound in Chaoyang district.
The picture had been viewed 15,530 times as of Thursday evening, with some comments expressing anger at the privilege, while others questioned the permit's authenticity.Microbloggers irked by the capital's high parking fees also pounced on the photo.
"The city increased its parking fees on one hand, while granting privileges for government cars on the other," microblogger RT Bai Xiaozhai commented Thursday.
On April 1, Beijing increased parking fees at 13 key business areas citywide, affecting about 70,000 parking spaces. The highest roadside parking fees increased to 15 yuan ($2.29) per hour, the Beijing News reported.
Meanwhile, the authorities also enhanced punishments for illegal parking. From April 1 to 6, authorities fined over 1,800 cars in Tongzhou as part of the traffic management bureau's crackdown on illegal parking, according to the Beijing Youth Daily's official microblog Thursday.
Six parking managers in the Central Business District (CBD) told the Global Times Thursday that they had never seen the kind of parking certificate that started the buzz.
"The certificate is useless for our parking spaces," a parking manager surnamed Li at the Jingwen Jie parking lot in the CBD told the Global Times Thursday, adding that he still exempts fees for military, police, procurator and judges' vehicles, as well as those of senior officials.
Another parking manager surnamed Gao at Wanda Plaza echoed Li's statement.
"I let them go for free not because of orders from my boss, but because it's standard practice. It's impossible to get them to pay you if they show their work ID," Gao said.
A senior driver surnamed He with the Academy of Broadcasting Science, under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, confirmed to the Global Times Thursday that there were certainly some privileged cars in the city.
"Exempting parking fees for general civil servants is likely not possible, but it is for senior officials or special cars," he told the Global Times. These cars, he said, could park for free, run traffic lights and violate traffic laws.
License plates on cars given greater deference usually start with the letters and numbers of jing () A8 (senior officials), jing O (public security bureau), jing V (military) and WJ (armed police), He said. Some regular cars also bear certificates that are marked "jing bei" or "jing an," which are sometimes used to identify official cars.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport declined the Global Times' interview request Thursday.
