Collecting parking fees chases away long-time free parked cars

Photos of before and after the revision of the Roadside Public Parking Lot Ordinance near the Cheongju Land Uam Children’s Center in Chungcheongbuk-do

Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, has begun charging for long-term parking at its free public parking lots, which has led to a rapid decrease in the number of vehicles parked and abandoned.

The city of Cheongju announced on November 11 that it has been charging for long-term parking in free public parking lots since November 1.

In September, Cheongju City promulgated some amendments to its parking lot ordinance to charge vehicles parked in free public parking lots for longer periods of time and decided to start charging vehicles parked for more than 48 hours from this month.

The parking fee was set at the level of the second-class paid public parking lot in Cheongju (500 won for the first 30 minutes, 100 won for every five minutes over, and a maximum fee of 8,000 won per day). There are two parking lots subject to charge: the on-street public parking space in Myeongam-dong, Sangsang-gu, and the carpool parking lot in the Northern Zone Transit Center in Odong-dong, Cheongwon-gu.

On-street public parking space in Myeongam-dong is a place where there are frequent complaints about long-term parking of more than 40 campers. At the Odong-dong Northern Zone Transit Center parking lot, which is adjacent to Cheongju International Airport, airport passengers' vehicles are causing inconvenience to citizens.

Cheongju is the first city in Korea to charge a fee for vehicles that monopolize free public parking lots for long periods of time. The reason for Cheongju's policy is that the Parking Lot Law, which allows the towing of vehicles neglected in public parking lots for more than a month, was implemented in July to prevent long-term parking of campers and other vehicles but has not had much effect.

The policy has significantly reduced the number of long-term parked vehicles in the two parking lots subject to the fee. According to Cheongju City, around 40 campers that occupied the Myeongam-dong on-street public parking space have disappeared, leaving plenty of parking space.

In addition, the Northern Zone Transit Center also has more parking spaces for citizens to use. The city explained. “There were many complaints of lack of parking space and accident risks due to the cars occupying the parking lot.” said an official from Cheongju City, adding that “Other local governments are also inquiring about benchmarking the long-term vehicle charging policy.”

However, the policy has been implemented in only two places, the Myeongam-dong on-street public parking space and the Odong-dong Northern Zone Transit Center carpool parking lot, raising concerns about the ballooning effect. This is because there are 226 free public parking lots in Cheongju that do not charge for parking.

“Long-term parkers may park in the city's more than 200 free public parking lots or side roads to avoid paying, making citizens more uncomfortable.” said Lee Sun-young, secretary-general of the CSPAC (Citizens’ Solidarity for Participation & Autonomy of Chungbuk). “I hope the city will find a fundamental way to solve the long-term parking problem.”

Cheongju City plans to crack down on illegal parking and expand tolled parking lots to prevent this ballooning effect.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.