An In-Depth Analysis of Parking Patterns in a Typical Chinese Danwei via Customized Data Collection App

Abstract

The danwei is a distinctive spatial unit in China, as a legacy of the Maoist era. In a danwei, state-owned enterprises supplied a full set of facilities, such that people’s daily activities did not often extend beyond their danweis. However, with the rapid alteration of civic social space in Chinese cities, many employees are no longer tied to a particular danwei. Traditional Chinese danweis have suddenly been faced with a shortage of car-parking space. In the context of the municipal call for danweis to “dismantle the walls and open up for traffic microcirculation”, this study aims to propose a practical approach that analyzes the parking status in a typical danwei. Based on both the parking data collected via a self-designed smartphone application and the survey data collected via questionnaires, the approach analyzes the parking situation in terms of four aspects, including hot parking zones, dynamic parking demand, vehicle parking behaviors, and perceptions of the parking situation. We conducted the experiment on the Information Department Campus of Wuhan University, which is a typical Chinese danwei with complicated surroundings. The results indicate non-negligible issues in the current parking situation, such as vulnerabilities in parking resource management, and a contradiction between supply and demand. Based on the results, we recommend possible strategies to alleviate the tense parking situation and we are confident of the feasibility of opening danwei roads first instead of opening parking facilities, as a response to “open up” the danweis. This study may serve as a representative example of how danweis should analyze their current parking situation and how to respond to the municipality’s suggestions: using modern technology to conduct data collection, perform in-depth and detailed analysis, and synthesize explicit localized policy.