Parking briefly for better results

Some new parking lots, marked "20 minutes only", are being trialed in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. The local police say these limited-duration parking spaces are being piloted near schools, hospitals and markets.

Hopefully, these will do the job intended. Imagine parents who are picking up their children from school in their cars. They just need to park their cars for about 10 minutes, but there is never any parking lot near the school gate.

So, they are forced to park their cars far away, which is inconvenient. Some parents even drive around schools to avoid parking, but it only congests the roads leading to the schools.

The same happens near hospitals, markets, convenience stores and public toilets, such as when a taxi driver halts briefly near a hospital for a patient who needs help getting in; when someone parks briefly, say, to buy a few bananas; when someone needs to park for just five minutes to go to a urinal. It makes no sense to drive into a parking lot for such brief stopovers.

Limited-duration parking lots are just what can help those wanting to make such brief stopovers while driving. To ensure that drivers don't exceed their allotted time, those who park for longer than 20 minutes will have to pay a fine.

Such limited-duration parking spaces can help traffic move more smoothly. It will also solve the problem of roadside parking making the roads narrower.

Limited-duration parking is an example of how the authorities do not always need to mobilize a lot of resources to help people. Sometimes, minor tweaks can also achieve better results.