Property managers point out pain points: How does Shanghai International Community manage electric vehicles? Promotion in multiple languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean
"How do you usually charge your electric bikes?" asked Chen Lei, deputy director of the property owners' committee of Huali Family Community.
"Before, we had to remove the battery and take it to the store to charge it, but now that is not allowed, we just look for charging stations along the street." The person who answered the question was the person in charge of Centaline Property's Huangjincheng Road store.
"There are battery charging stations installed on Gubei Road. Have you tried them?" The person asking the question was Shao Qiying, secretary of the Party branch of Ronghua Third Residential Area, Hongqiao Street, Changning District.
"I go there occasionally, but it's a bit far from the Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street, and the number of vehicles there is quite saturated. Sometimes there is no place to charge when I go there." replied a representative of Centaline Property.
"Therefore, we still need to survey the number of electric vehicles on the entire pedestrian street in advance, and then make decisions on installing charging piles based on demand." Chen Lei's suggestion was directly directed to Shao Qiying and Ren Erdong, head of the Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street Management Office.
The above conversation took place at the Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street Co-Governance Committee Block Co-creation Meeting held on the morning of June 13. The meeting was not held at the traditional neighborhood committee or Gubei Citizen Center, but at the second-floor conference room of the Bank of China Huangjincheng Road Branch. The co-creation meeting, which lasted more than an hour, focused on two issues: the safe use of electric bicycles and the management of outdoor seating for shops. The results of the discussion will be included in the "Huangjincheng Road Block Code 2.0" as a block convention for surrounding communities and businesses.
Nearly 20 members participated in the co-creation meeting from the Huangjincheng Road Co-governance Committee, Hongqiao Street Autonomous Office, Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street Management Office, street shops and Gubei Ronghua Third Residential Committee. It is worth mentioning that the property management committees and property managers of the six natural communities along Huangjincheng Road were present, and the participating business representatives covered different business formats such as coffee, training institutions, real estate, banks and retail.
The Huangjinchengdao Pedestrian Street, which opened in 2009, is 670 meters long and is a landmark "Internet celebrity street" in the Gubei International Community. There are currently about 200 businesses on both sides of the pedestrian street, which are densely distributed. Many businesses have outdoor stalls and electric vehicles parked next to each other on weekdays.
Korean residents participate in an e-bike safety awareness campaign on Golden City Road
In 2019, Hongqiao Subdistrict took the lead in establishing the Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street Co-governance Committee, the Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street Friendly Merchants Alliance and other neighborhood self-governing organizations, and successively launched neighborhood rules and neighborhood public exhibitions, discussing topics covering civilized pet keeping, non-motor vehicle parking, neighborhood station construction, garbage classification and other aspects of social livelihood.
Shao Qiying told reporters that in conjunction with the new version of the "Shanghai Non-Motor Vehicle Safety Management Regulations" implemented on June 1 and the existing "High-Rise Civil Building Fire Safety Management Regulations", residential areas are strengthening publicity efforts on safety hazards such as prohibiting electric bicycles from being parked in corridors and charging with flying wires. At the same time, relying on the opportunity of the neighborhood committee moving from the inside of the community to the streets along Huangjincheng Road, an extension window was set up in the "Integration" Gubei Station to broaden service functions and strengthen safety publicity for merchants and residents.
Previously, Ronghua Residential Area had produced a notice on the safe use of electric bicycles in four languages, including Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. The co-creation meeting on that day aimed to institutionalize the precautions for the safe use of electric bicycles into the Huangjincheng Road neighborhood code.
Electric bicycle safety notice in multiple languages: Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean
"Now the charging of electric bikes within the community, both in terms of property management and charging equipment, can already meet the needs of residents and visitors. The more difficult problem is the parking and charging of vehicles along the street." Rui Shi Garden Property Manager Qiu Yunli noticed that along Huangjincheng Road and Gubei Road, some electric bikes "grabbed" the charging facilities, and sometimes they would charge and park for a whole day. The parking and charging management of vehicles along the street has not kept up with the growth in the number of electric bikes.
A representative of merchants on Huangjinchengdao Pedestrian Street and the head of Zhongjingtang said that for the convenience of going to work, many employees ride bicycles to commute, eliminating the trouble of parking and charging electric bicycles. "But some foreign vehicles see that there are charging facilities near our store, and sometimes they charge for a whole day, affecting the in and out of the store customers." There are also property managers who said that in actual operations, when encountering electric bicycles parked randomly or charged illegally, they generally choose to inform the urban management department to come and enforce the law and move the vehicles as soon as possible. It is not appropriate for property staff to have a direct conflict with the owners of electric bicycles.
"Every time we talk about the management of electric vehicle charging, people raise a lot of questions and there are suggestions for solutions, but when it comes to actual implementation, there are many 'emotional' considerations besides 'legal' ones," said a property manager at the scene.
Shao Qiying, Party Secretary of Ronghua Third Residential Area, introduces the photo. Photo by Shu Shu
Similarly, when talking about the management of outdoor seating, after Ren Erdong introduced the setting rules and management specifications for the existing and newly added umbrella stands on Huangjincheng Road Pedestrian Street, Chen Lei couldn't help but interrupt: "Residents have been waiting for a clear attitude from the management for many years, and now someone is finally talking about some practical and useful practices." He said that most community properties are now service-oriented, but the primary responsibility of property and block operators should be management. Only by managing the community and blocks well can residents truly feel the advantages of the service.
At the meeting, all parties reached a preliminary consensus on the management of outdoor seating on the pedestrian street, that is, merchants with outdoor seating will withdraw their outdoor seating business areas by 20-30 cm, leaving about 1.5-2 meters of the pedestrian street for residents to pass through, and the scale of outdoor seating will be adjusted in subsequent practice. Regarding the addition of electric bicycle charging equipment, Hongqiao Subdistrict will combine the suggestions of all members of the Huangjincheng Road Co-Governance Committee, and conduct a demand-oriented survey based on the original Gubei Road public charging equipment, and find points that meet the installation conditions in the vicinity of the pedestrian street to add charging facilities.
On June 14, the day after the co-creation meeting, Hongqiao Subdistrict held a social mobilization work promotion meeting to strictly prohibit the "flying wire charging" of electric bicycles. Reporters learned at the meeting that in combination with the characteristics of multi-governance of international communities and old public housing communities in the jurisdiction, Hongqiao Subdistrict will widely gather public wisdom and gather the forces of building team leaders, volunteers, urban builders and other parties to carry out self-governance of electric bicycle management. At the same time, the street will also combine unblocking and blocking, and step by step promote the implementation of a new batch of smart charging facilities, using scientific, refined and intelligent methods to meet the charging needs of residents and merchants more conveniently, safely and affordably.
