Despite Energy-Saving Drive, Only Half of Local Governments Enforce 'Five-Day System' for Public Parking Lots

Only 5% of Designated Parking Lots Implement the Five-Day System

Non-Participating Local Governments Cite Lack of Eligible Lots and Poor Public Transportation

It has been found that only about half of local governments are implementing the "5-day rotational system for passenger cars in public parking lots." Furthermore, the number of parking lots where the system is actually being enforced is only about 5% of the total parking lots the government designated as subject to the system.

On April 19, the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment announced that, based on the implementation plans received from local governments, as of April 15, a total of 1,694 public parking lots in 128 municipalities had adopted the 5-day rotational system. Previously, the government launched the 5-day rotational system for passenger cars at public parking lots nationwide on April 8 as a response to the energy crisis.

Due to the prolonged Middle East war, the 5-day weekday rotational system for public parking lots operated by public institutions was implemented. On April 8, 2026, at the entrance of Sejong-ro Public Parking Lot in Jongno-gu, Seoul, employees provided drivers with information about the implementation of the 5-day rotational system. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

Among the 243 local governments (17 metropolitan and 226 basic local governments), those implementing the 5-day rotational system accounted for just over half, at 52.7%. Of the local governments not enforcing the system, 33 had no eligible paid on-street or off-street public parking lots at all. The remaining 82 were described by the Ministry as "primarily non-metropolitan areas where public transportation is inadequate," making it unfeasible to implement the rotational system in those regions.

The number of parking lots where local governments decided not to apply the 5-day rotational system was 3,895, more than twice the 1,694 lots where it was enforced. The Ministry stated in its guidelines that exceptions can be made for "parking lots affecting the economy, such as those near traditional markets or tourist attractions," "park-and-ride lots that impact public transportation use," or "parking lots with low traffic volume." As a result, about half of local governments and 70% of eligible parking lots decided not to implement the rotational system.

Initially, the Ministry had announced that 30,000 paid on-street and off-street parking lots operated by local governments and other public institutions, with about one million parking spaces, would be subject to the 5-day rotational system. Therefore, the Ministry explained that the system was equivalent to applying the rotational schedule to one million vehicles, which was estimated to reduce monthly oil consumption by 5,000 to 27,000 barrels.

The Ministry explained, "The previously announced figure of 30,000 parking lots included a significant number of 'resident-priority parking lots in urban areas' and free parking lots in rural and fishing villages." They added, "There was a discrepancy between the data submitted by local governments to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the criteria for reporting to the Ministry as subject to the 5-day rotational system." The Ministry also noted, "This is the first time access to public parking lots has been restricted, so there are no previous cases to analyze the effects," and added, "We are considering conducting a separate study to analyze the effects after the end of the rotational system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.