Electronic Parking Fees: We Must Not Let Minor Glitches Undermine a Major Reform

Release date:

2019-11-13 09:05

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Parking Bang

Give the camera a “clearer view”

Electronic Parking Fees: We Must Not Let Minor Glitches Undermine a Major Reform

Electronic toll collection has established the parking principle of “park in designated spaces, pay for parking, and face penalties for illegal parking,” while also ensuring a shift in the nature of fees from commercial charges to administrative‑public service fees, and in the charging model from on‑site manual collection to electronic‑device‑based billing.

Near Peking University Cancer Hospital on Fucheng Road, “AiPark” high‑position video surveillance cameras have been installed. Vehicles heading to the hospital now park in an orderly manner; parking is free for up to 15 minutes, and drivers no longer linger, resulting in much smoother traffic flow. “You simply link it to the ‘Beijing Traffic’ app,” said Ms. Yang, who was parking, “and if you exceed 15 minutes, your phone receives a text‑message notification and the fee is automatically deducted—no cash transactions at all. It’s really convenient.”

Today, Beijing and many other regions across the country still use electronic toll collection. However, recent media reports indicate that despite the implementation of electronic systems, numerous road segments continue to rely on manual tolling. Additionally, some drivers have reported that their vehicles were misidentified, resulting in unsolicited text messages prompting them to pay tolls.

Why has electronic tolling been implemented, and what are the current results? How can high‑position video‑recognition technology be further improved? Science and Technology Daily reporters interviewed Wang Xiaojing, Chief Scientist at the National Intelligent Transportation Systems Engineering Research Center; Zhao Zhen, Director of the Static Traffic Management Division of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport; and relevant technical experts.

Eliminating illegal parking fees: Many cities have adopted electronic payment for on-street parking.

With the rapid increase in motor vehicles in urban areas, parking shortages in major cities have quickly become a pressing social issue.

Wang Xiaojing said that, due to a shortage of parking spaces, the sides of roads are often crowded with illegally parked vehicles. To ease the congestion, local governments have begun using price-based measures, designating appropriate parking spaces along roadways in areas where conditions permit.

“These measures were all well-intentioned and have helped alleviate the problem of illegal parking. However, due to the lack of transparency in manual fee collection, numerous issues have arisen,” said Wang Xiaojing. He added that in the past, some companies—and even private individuals—have collected parking fees on public roads, seeking to profit from publicly owned road resources, which has led to multiple disputes.

To address irregular practices such as unauthorized and arbitrary parking fees, Beijing began implementing a phased road‑parking reform on January 1, 2019, introducing electronic payment. “Following the reform, all revenue from on‑street parking fees is now fully incorporated into Beijing’s standardized non‑tax revenue management,” said Zhao Zhen.

To date, Beijing’s six central districts, along with Tongzhou and Yanqing, have implemented electronic parking fee collection on 458 roads, covering a total of 46,000 parking spaces. The service currently covers 4.289 million vehicles, with 11.567 million paid parking transactions, and all revenue is remitted to the district-level treasuries. Across the country, numerous cities have adopted electronic payment systems as a solution for on-street parking management.

“Since the implementation of electronic parking fees in Beijing’s eight districts, on‑site bargaining, unauthorized charges, and arbitrary fee collection have been virtually eliminated,” Zhao Zhen revealed. From July to September 2019, the number of penalties issued in the six central districts, as well as in Tongzhou and Yanqing, increased by nearly 30 percent compared with the same period last year. Illegal parking along electronically billed road‑side parking zones declined sharply, leading to a marked improvement in parking order and the gradual emergence of a culture that emphasizes parking in designated spaces, paying for parking, and accepting penalties for violations.

According to a report by Beijing Television, the most significant aspect of the road‑parking reform is that it has clarified the legal basis for charging for on‑street parking. Electronic payment has established the principle that “park in designated spaces, pay for parking, and face penalties for illegal parking,” while also ensuring a shift in the nature of fees—from commercial charges to administrative‑public service fees—and in the collection method—from on‑site manual billing to electronic‑device‑based payment.

A relevant official from the Fengtai District Urban Management Commission stated in an interview that, in the past, with human toll collectors handling payments, informal price negotiations were inevitable. Now, with electronic tolling and no cash involved, the system charges exactly what it calculates, effectively eliminating unauthorized and arbitrary fee collection.

Prices have drawn criticism, with all fees channeled into the treasury to support infrastructure development.

However, over the past year since the road‑side parking reform was implemented, a number of issues have gradually emerged. Xiao Feng, who works near Chaoyangmen North Small Street, says that while roadside spaces used to be fully occupied, now most of them from Chaoyangmen North Small Street to Chaoyangmen Bridge lie empty. With the removal of parking attendants, the “daily‑rate” discount has disappeared; under the new uniform electronic‑payment system, parking for an entire day now costs 150 yuan, compared with the previous 30 to 40 yuan per day. “After a month of work, the parking bill adds up to several thousand yuan—who can afford that?” Xiao Feng remarks.

“The goal of the roadside parking reform is to channel all fees into the public treasury, whereas practices such as ‘package‑day’ charges constitute unauthorized fee‑charging and fail to remit revenues to the treasury,” said Wang Xiaojing. He added that reforms are inherently iterative and imperfect, and only by consolidating revenue streams under fiscal management can public infrastructure be better planned and managed.

Addressing the issue of insufficient parking spaces in older residential communities, Zhao Zhen stated that efforts will be made to encourage each community to expand its parking infrastructure, with corresponding measures being rolled out gradually.

Enhance recognition accuracy to ensure that electronic surveillance systems no longer suffer from “presbyopia.”

Beijing’s on‑street parking system employs high‑position video‑recognition technology, known as the “AiPaiChe” SkyEye. “It involves mounting a camera at an elevated position to capture two sets of images: one showing a close‑up of the license plate and another documenting the vehicle’s entry and exit, thereby establishing a complete chain of evidence and generating a parking order according to the established pricing,” said Wang Chen, the technical director of the Beijing Parking Management Center. According to reports, this high‑position video technology represents the fifth generation of intelligent parking management, following metered parking, handheld PDA terminals, geomagnetic sensors, and video bollards.

Although electronic toll collection has addressed irregularities such as unregulated and unauthorized charges, a notable drawback is that even cutting-edge technology can make mistakes. Earlier, a reporter for Half-Monthly Talk published an article titled “Electronic Cameras Suffer from Presbyopia! Beijing’s Road-Parking Electronic Toll System Urgently Needs Improvement,” which revealed that in less than a year, as many as 20,000 transactions were misidentified.

“Video‑based systems will inevitably encounter instances where they fail to recognize vehicles. For example, poor lighting conditions or obstructions can impair recognition, leading to situations where a vehicle has already exited the system but remains unregistered, causing billing to continue,” explained Wang Xiaojing.

The wide variety of license‑plate colors has also highlighted the limitations of earlier video‑recording equipment. According to Wang Chen, in addition to the standard blue plates, new options have been introduced, such as green plates for new‑energy vehicles and yellow plates for large buses and trucks. With just one vehicle number, a different color can mean two entirely distinct cars.

“To enhance the clarity of recognition by high‑position video equipment, each district has coordinated with equipment manufacturers to optimize license‑plate color‑recognition algorithms and implemented supplementary lighting measures, thereby strengthening the devices’ nighttime adaptability and mitigating recognition issues caused by glare,” said Wang Chen. He added that, as operational time accumulates, the system will continue to expand its feature database and, through ongoing machine learning, self‑correction, and continuous improvement, steadily boost recognition accuracy. With regard to billing errors, data exchange between the electronic toll collection system and front‑end equipment has been used to verify and reduce the number of erroneous transactions.

Regarding the issue of license‑plate recognition errors caused by high‑position cameras being obscured by tree branches and foliage, Zhao Zhen stated that he has instructed parking management authorities in all districts to coordinate with landscaping departments to promptly prune branches and leaves.

“Trying to solve all problems with a single technology is certainly not feasible, and video recognition accuracy tends to decline in complex environments. However, the approach of using high‑position video surveillance and an app‑based management platform for roadside parking is currently one of the more effective solutions; in the future, further improvements can be made in technology, management systems, and regulatory frameworks,” said Wang Xiaojing.