URBAN PARKING POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

This article provides an insight into the current parking situation in China's major cities; it includes information on analysis, parking policies, and the types of facilities in use. Chinese car parking policy is now out of date, due to the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy. However, since 1997, eleven Chinese cities have introduced parking policy initiatives in at least seven directions that have obtained favourable interest and support. Five Chinese Government Departments have also introduced projects and initiatives. The main parking problem in China is that there are insufficient parking spaces, and irregular parking is also quite common in several cities. Parking demand is enormous in the cities, because the number of vehicles there is growing by about 15% per year. As there is no more land for surface parking spaces, multi-storey and underground car parks must be built. The core problems are: (1) parking not being part of transport plans as a whole; (2) bad car park design; (3) the use of on-street spaces for long-stay parking; (4) car parks not being used for their real purposes; and (5) difficulty in enforcing parking restrictions. More mechanical parking equipment and advanced parking management systems are needed. The Chinese parking industry is keen to learn from other countries.