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.
Highlights
In China, the spatial form of Chinese “danwei”, which composes a city, is a historical legacy [1]
Considering that most danweis do not have either an intelligent parking system or a parking monitoring system such as used by organizations in the United States and European countries, the parking data collected by a danwei are private, and no economical and efficient way yet exists to track the location of each vehicle over time, we present a handy and efficient distributed smartphone application to collect car parking data inside a danwei
In the informatization construction of a city, a danwei is often regarded as the smallest unit with one unique postal address
Summary
In China, the spatial form of Chinese “danwei” (work unit), which composes a city, is a historical legacy [1]. The danwei is an integrated spatial unit of work, residence and social life, enclosed by walls, centered around state-owned enterprises and institutions, creating identity and a sense of belonging in people. The daily activities of these people did not usually extend beyond their danweis. The danwei is still a typical organizational unit of Chinese society.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
