Automation Ends Hunt For Spaces At Tsuen Wan Car Park

Hong Kong drivers will get their first taste of an automated parking system on Thursday when it goes into operation at a car park in Tsuen Wan.

Motorists will only need to park their vehicles on the ground floor of the car park at the junction of Hoi Shing Road and Hoi Kok Street, and the system will do its work to move the vehicles to available spaces.

Automated parking systems use mechanical devices such as express lifts and moving platforms to transport vehicles.

The short-term car park, which consists of six three-storey structures will provide 78 automated parking spaces, on top of some 160 traditional parking spaces.

Keith Tang, the Transport Department’s principal project coordinator, said the new system will double the parking spaces and help solve illegal parking in the area.

“In the Tsuen Wan Area, there’s a lot of illegal parking. And also we discovered that there are not enough parking spaces for the public. So we identified this short-term tenancy site as a pilot site to install the automated parking system,” he said.

“In our case, we have six modules. One module will accommodate 13 parking spaces, but the module will occupy about six to seven parking spaces on the ground. That means the installation of the automated parking system will double the parking capacity of the area.”

Tang added that the government plans to introduce automated parking systems in six other car parks in future, including one in Pak Shek Kok in Tai Po which is expected to go into operation by the end of next year.