The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 28th of last month that it is recruiting shopping centers, schools, and apartments to share vacant parking spaces at night.

  By doing so, the city expects to solve the parking shortage in the surrounding residential areas and earn an income of 20 to 50,000 won per space (per month). In addition, the city will also support CCTV installation for safety management and parking lot repair costs, and if more than 30 spaces are opened, it plans to partially support management labor costs and liability insurance for damage to vehicles.

For CCTV installation, the city will directly support installation or installation costs up to 8 million won for 10 or more spaces, and for initial parking lot repairs (5 or more spaces), it will support construction costs up to 10 million won. To alleviate severe parking shortages in dense residential areas, the recruitment of building parking lots to share parking spaces at night is open until the 29th of next month, and if it is open for more than two years, the government will additionally support parking lot repair costs up to 3 million won per year.

Facilities that can open more than five parking spaces for general buildings and more than 10 parking spaces for schools are eligible, and even if there are no parking spaces currently secured, facilities that can open more than five idle spaces on the site will create parking spaces directly if they apply.

If a building owner who wants to open at night applies to the relevant local government office, a site survey will be conducted and a contract for the period and scale of opening will be signed, and the operation will begin immediately. "The parking lot of the building that is open at night will be designated as a resident priority parking area and will be operated by charging residents living in nearby houses 20,000 to 50,000 won per month for parking and using it from 18 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day," explained Man-cheol Shin, head of the parking planning team.

Fee collection, towing of illegal parking, and allocation of usage will be managed by the local facility management organization, and can also be managed directly by the building owner if desired. Residents who wish to participate in the program can contact their local transportation department or the Seoul Parking Planning Division.

The project is part of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's nighttime parking lot opening system, which was introduced in 2007. Parking lots attached to buildings located near residential areas, such as churches, schools, and shopping centers, were first opened at night to accommodate the fact that these facilities often have spare parking spaces at night, and in 2012, the program was expanded to include new apartments and residential buildings with spare parking spaces.

As of the end of December 2012, a total of 5,717 parking spaces in 188 buildings in Seoul are shared at night. For example, Geumhwa Elementary School in Cheonyeong-dong, Seodaemun-gu, opens 24 out of 100 parking spaces, and Seodaemun Tax Office in Hongje-dong, Seodaemun-gu, opens 35 out of 50 spaces.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government believes that the nighttime opening of parking lots is somewhat solving the problem of dense residential areas suffering from chronic parking shortages, and plans to conduct a full inspection of the actual situation, including the management and operation status of the parking lots of these nighttime openings and the demand for use, in the first half of this year to secure the effectiveness of the project.

Currently, due to the lack of parking spaces in dense residential areas, illegal parking in alleys, especially at night, is a serious problem. Not only is the safety of citizens returning home threatened by cars parked in every corner of the alley, but various problems are constantly being raised, such as difficulties in accessing emergency relief vehicles in case of fire or emergency patients.

In addition, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is working in various ways to spread the culture of sharing parking spaces in residential areas, such as the resident priority parking system (129,454 spaces), the creation of garbage land parking lots (214 spaces in 26 locations), and green parking (44,787 spaces in 2,045 locations).

"Due to the high land prices in residential areas, it costs at least 50 million won to create a parking space, but opening up idle parking spaces can solve the parking shortage in residential areas and save money," said Kang Hong-ki, head of the Seoul Parking Planning Division. "I hope you will be interested in sharing parking spaces and actively participate in the program."