An electronic billboard showing the real-time number of available spaces in parking lots in the Wulin commercial area is seen in Xiacheng district, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/hangzhou.zjol.com.cn]

Security guards working at the Wulin Square in Xiacheng district, Hangzhou, will no longer be bothered by people coming to them asking for directions. From June, the square has begun to adopt the Hangzhou City Brain system to guide visitors to quickly find the nearest toilets or parking lots.

The Xiacheng government has said that the City Brain hub at county (district) level was established in Xiacheng at a weekly meeting on promoting the development of the City Brain system, meaning data between city-level and county (district)-level City Brain systems can be shared.

With the establishment of the City Brain hub in Xiacheng, residents will face fewer difficulties in finding parking lots and other places.

On the ring road encircling Wulin Square, 17 electronic screens have been installed telling drivers the number of real-time available spaces in nearby parking lots.

"There are many parking lots near the Wulin Square, but visitors and residents may not know exactly where they are or how many available spaces they have," said Du Lei, an official at the Tianshui Street in Xiacheng, where the Wulin Square is located.

He said that the City Brain system can monitor changes in the number of available spaces at nearby parking lots and show the data - as well as the locations of the parking lots - on the screens.

Based on City Brain analysis, the number of cars in the parking lots in the Wulin commercial area at night accounts for just one third of that during the daytime, while residents in nearby communities face difficulties in parking.

To sort out the problem, the Tianshui Street management committee is allowing residents from nearby communities to park their cars in the Wuling Square commercial area, in cooperation with relevant shopping malls and companies.

The street management committee decided to share the parking data with more communities and shopping complexes via the City Brain system, enabling more people to save the time they would have spent finding a parking lot.