After arriving in Hong Kong for only a few weeks, I have already managed to have to queue up for a parking spot. Something I have never experienced in the western countries. The car went under 5 miles/hour, and I was still not guaranteed a spot for my vehicle. All I could do was to pray for one. From queuing up to parking my car, the whole process took me over 30 minutes. It was frustrating and up to today, I still cannot believe that the parking places short supply problem has been around for over 10 plus years. Furthermore, such problem has raised a range of social issues, taking illegal parking as an example.
In United States, some city has initiated projects to help drivers find parking spots using app. Not only that the drivers can save time looking for parking places, but it also relieves the traffic on the road especially in the busy area during rush hours.
Hong Kong government has a lot of examples to follow. In fact, many private associations in Tsuen Wan has provided parking areas with app for drivers who are looking to park their car in the area. For instance, Nina Mall HK has plenty of parking spaces available. Nina Mall 1 and Nina Mall 2 offer around 400 parking spaces, supported by their app. The app collects real-time data so it can allow user to view the vacancy. I really hope that the Hong Kong government can come to face this issue and start working on it as it has been around for so many years.