New Developments! Guangdong Issues Guidelines on Parking Management

I. Under what circumstances was the “Guiding Opinions” formulated?

In recent years, the number of vehicles in our province has grown rapidly, surpassing 20 million by the end of 2019. Against the backdrop of robust national and provincial policies aimed at boosting automobile consumption, vehicle ownership is expected to continue rising at a brisk pace, further exacerbating the imbalance between parking supply and demand in urban areas. At the same time, the development of urban parking infrastructure and the institutional frameworks for parking management have failed to keep pace with this rapid increase in vehicle numbers, giving rise to widespread challenges that constrain urban operations, undermine civic civility, and impede residents’ daily commutes.

(1) The imbalance between parking supply and demand in cities across the province is becoming increasingly acute. At present, the imbalance between parking supply and demand is particularly pronounced across cities in Guangdong Province. According to the “Urban Parking Facilities Planning Guidelines,” for cities with a planned population exceeding 500,000, the total supply of motor vehicle parking spaces should ideally be maintained at 1.1 to 1.3 times the number of registered vehicles. As of the end of 2019, a conservative estimate puts the province’s total number of parking spaces—including on‑street spots—at no more than 9 million. With an estimated 17.37 million passenger cars in urban areas, even applying the minimum guideline of 1.1 parking spaces per vehicle, the provincial parking shortfall approaches nearly 10 million. Notably, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Dongguan each face deficits exceeding one million spaces, with supply–demand imbalances comparable to those observed in Beijing in 2017. Furthermore, in ten prefecture‑level cities, the ratio of total parking supply to the number of registered vehicles falls short of 1:2, failing to meet the standard of two vehicles sharing one space and falling well below the minimum guideline of 1.1 spaces per vehicle; moreover, the gap between parking supply and demand continues to widen.

In some cities, the lack of sound parking planning and effective management has exacerbated traffic congestion, while illegal on‑street parking further compounds the problem. Unclear standards for developing parking facilities impose significant pressure on urban road networks. Overall, urban parking infrastructure is severely underdeveloped: in central districts—particularly in older residential areas—parking spaces are in acute shortage; mandatory parking‑space allocation requirements have not been promptly implemented; public parking facilities remain inadequate; reliance on on‑street parking is pervasive; and indiscriminate, disorderly parking is widespread. The challenges of insufficient, disorganized, and non‑compliant parking in older neighborhoods urgently require resolution, as they have become a major constraint on improving the quality of the living environment.

Because urban central districts typically concentrate a high density of government offices, commercial establishments, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities, traffic demand is highly concentrated, parking resources are relatively scarce, and congestion during peak periods is becoming increasingly frequent. Moreover, in the development and construction of new urban areas, insufficient consideration has been given to dispersing the city’s existing functions, or planning has been poorly implemented; as a result, the complementary development of public amenities such as commercial, educational, and medical facilities has been uneven and inadequate, exacerbating the separation of work and residence and further worsening parking shortages.

(2) Parking management on urban roads in our province is a particularly pressing issue. According to our survey, urban road parking management in our province currently faces the following key issues:

1. The division of responsibilities and the legal and regulatory framework for parking management are inadequate. At the provincial level, there are no dedicated provincial laws or regulations, departmental rules, administrative bodies, or relevant policy guidelines specifically addressing parking governance. At the city level, due to the lack of supporting provincial policies, localities have not established specialized leading groups or coordinating agencies for parking management, resulting in widespread issues such as overlapping jurisdiction among departments and gaps in oversight. Across the province, only seven cities—including Guangzhou and Shenzhen—have either completed or initiated related legislative efforts; in other cities, parking planning, construction, and management all generally lack statutory backing, and overall coordination of parking management remains weak.

2. The structure of parking resource supply is inadequate. Mechanisms to ensure the availability of land for parking in various cities remain imperfect, enforcement of parking‑space‑required‑by‑construction regulations is weak, the development of multi‑storey parking facilities lags behind, and public parking resources are underutilized and insufficiently developed. At present, only 12 prefecture‑level cities have completed or initiated the preparation of relevant parking plans; in some cases, even when plans exist, they are not rigorously implemented, and the mechanisms for securing land supply are incomplete. Furthermore, only Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhongshan have established clear penalty standards for violations of parking‑space‑required‑by‑construction requirements, highlighting the difficulty of effectively addressing the root causes of parking shortages. As a result, the implementation of the parking‑space‑required‑by‑construction system remains challenging, the construction of multi‑storey parking facilities is delayed, and public parking resources are neither fully utilized nor adequately developed.

3. The current parking resources are underutilized at a granular level. Parking facilities in civil defense structures exhibit low utilization rates, while parking conditions in key areas such as older residential neighborhoods, hospitals, and schools remain generally poor. Moreover, there is a lack of effective policy tools to leverage parking pricing, and oversight of parking lot operations and services is inadequate.

4. A unified, shared urban parking management framework has yet to be established. With the exception of a few cities such as Shenzhen, most municipalities have not launched “Internet Plus” smart parking initiatives; parking data remains underutilized, and the degree of sharing and openness of parking facilities is low. Although Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, and other cities have legally mandated the development of parking information management platforms, progress in this area has been slow, and the overall level of parking‑related information management remains inadequate. This situation results in the inefficient use of parking data resources and creates vulnerabilities in community‑level epidemic prevention, counterterrorism, and efforts to combat crime and illegal activities.

5. Supervision of static traffic order remains inadequate. Oversight of parking‑lot operations is insufficient, and issues such as difficulty and disorderly parking in older residential areas, hospitals, and schools are widespread. In urban areas, 70% of police incidents are related to illegal parking, prompting strong public complaints.

II. What are the bases for formulating the “Guiding Opinions”?

(1) Relevant requirements and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping personally chaired the Central Urban Work Conference, where he pointed out that a significant number of Chinese cities suffer from prominent “urban ills” such as traffic congestion, difficulties in commuting, and parking shortages, and set new standards and requirements for urban transportation. Subsequently, relevant state departments issued a series of targeted measures to address urban parking challenges and enhance the level of urban traffic management. On July 30, 2019, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee called for implementing projects to address infrastructure shortcomings, including the renovation of old residential areas in towns and cities, the construction of urban parking facilities, and the development of cold-chain logistics networks in both urban and rural areas. On December 12, 2019, the Central Economic Work Conference explicitly urged accelerating the construction of urban parking facilities and other related infrastructure.

In October 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Public Security and five other departments, jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Urban Parking Infrastructure Construction,” calling for effective measures to alleviate the shortage of parking supply through reform and innovation, intensive utilization of existing resources, and coordinated regulatory oversight. In February 2016, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council released the “Several Opinions on Further Strengthening Urban Planning, Construction, and Management,” urging local authorities to rationally allocate parking facilities, encourage public participation, relax market access restrictions, and gradually address the challenge of insufficient parking. In August 2017, the Ministry of Public Security, the Central Civilization Office, the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport jointly promulgated the “Action Plan for Enhancing Civilized and Smooth Urban Road Traffic,” explicitly emphasizing efforts to tackle urban parking difficulties and elevate the modernization of urban parking and traffic management. In June 2019, the General Offices of the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Urban Parking Management,” calling for improvements to the urban road traffic environment and the mitigation of parking-related conflicts.

(II) Legal and Regulatory, Policy, and Normative Basis

1. Legal Basis: The Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Regulations on Property Management of the People’s Republic of China, the Implementing Regulations of the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Implementing Regulations of the Guangdong Province Road Traffic Safety Law, and other relevant laws and regulations.

2. Basis for Policy Standards:

　　(7) Guiding Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Urban Parking Management, issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development (Gongjiaoguan [2019] No. 345)

　　(8) Guidelines for Urban Parking Facility Planning issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development;

　　(9) Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development and the Ministry of Land and Resources on Further Improving Urban Parking Lot Planning, Construction, and Land‑Use Policies (Jiancheng [2016] No. 193);

　　(10) Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development on Strengthening the Management of Urban Parking Facilities (Jiancheng [2015] No. 141);

　　(11) Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development and the Ministry of Land and Resources on Further Improving Urban Parking Lot Planning, Construction, and Land‑Use Policies (Jiancheng [2016] No. 193);

　　(12) Notice of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban–Rural Development on Issues Related to the Liberalization of Charges for Parking and Storage Services in Residential Communities, Commercial Facilities, and Open-Air Parking Lots (Guangdong Development and Reform Commission Price [2015] No. 483);

　　(13) “Implementation Opinions of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Transport on Further Improving the Charging Policy for Motor Vehicle Parking Services” (Guangdong Development and Reform Commission Regulation [2017] No. 5).

III. What are the guiding principles behind the formulation of the “Guiding Opinions”?

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will comprehensively implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second, Third, and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee. We will thoroughly carry out the important speeches, instructions, and directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping on Guangdong, adhere to a people-centered development philosophy, improve the urban governance system, advance the modernization of urban governance capabilities, and strengthen systemic, law-based, comprehensive, and source‑level governance, thereby providing robust safeguards for the sustained and sound development of the economy and society.

IV. What are the objectives and tasks set forth in the “Guiding Opinions”?

Guided by the urban parking management objectives of prioritizing planning, ensuring adequate infrastructure, maintaining orderly administration, implementing fee‑based pricing, promoting integrated resource sharing, and providing user‑friendly services, this initiative focuses on four key areas—planning, construction, management, and industry—while clearly defining the responsibilities of each department and formulating concrete measures, plans, and mechanisms. It seeks to comprehensively strengthen and improve urban parking management across the province, address pressing issues such as the difficulty of finding parking, and establish a new governance framework characterized by government leadership, market‑driven regulation, collaborative social governance, and community participation. This effort aims to foster coordinated development between urban road traffic and the economy and society, and to continuously enhance the public’s sense of gain, happiness, and security.

V. With regard to the target tasks, what specific key measures does the “Guiding Opinions” propose?

　　The “Guiding Opinions” set forth 19 recommendations addressing five major objectives and tasks, including:

First aspect “Building a Comprehensive Urban Parking Management Mechanism” comprises five guiding principles, primarily addressing the establishment of a unified coordination mechanism for parking management, the strengthening of urban parking management institutional frameworks, the detailed implementation of specialized urban parking plans, the refinement of ancillary‑construction standards and the encouragement of over‑provisioning, as well as the enhancement of pre‑, in‑, and post‑construction oversight of ancillary parking provisions. These measures aim to streamline the parking management system and forge a new governance model characterized by government leadership, market‑based regulation, collaborative social governance, and community participation.

The second aspect “Continuously advancing the optimization of the parking resource supply structure” comprises four guiding principles, primarily addressing aspects such as “strengthening land‑use supply and support measures,” “encouraging and supporting the development of the parking industry,” “promoting the construction of multi‑storey parking facilities,” and “making rational use of public space resources.” These measures aim to tackle the root causes of parking‑resource shortages.

　 　Third aspect “Refined, coordinated management of existing parking resources” comprises five guiding principles, focusing on the meticulous and integrated utilization of on‑street parking spaces, enhancing the utilization rate of civil defense facilities for parking, comprehensively addressing parking challenges in key areas, establishing and improving a differentiated parking‑fee policy, and strengthening oversight of operational services. These measures aim to fully tap into existing parking capacity and effectively guide parking demand.

　　 Fourth aspect “Integrating and Sharing Urban Parking Resources” comprises two key policy guidelines, primarily setting out requirements for a new paradigm of parking management—centered on smart parking and shared parking—such as “building urban smart parking systems” and “promoting the shared and open use of parking facilities.” The aim is to align promptly with smart government and smart city strategies, proactively plan for intelligent parking‑management services, and strive to position Guangdong at the forefront of smart parking management.

　　 Fifth aspect “Standardizing Static Traffic Order Management” comprises three key guidelines, primarily addressing parking‑related operational and enforcement management, as well as industry oversight. These guidelines call for “establishing safety‑focused infrastructure at parking facilities,” “imposing lawful penalties for illegal parking,” and “strengthening regulatory oversight of the parking sector.” The overarching goal is to standardize static parking order and enhance compliance with parking regulations and laws.

VI. To ensure the smooth implementation of the “Guiding Opinions,” what supporting measures have been proposed?

　　To ensure the successful achievement of the objectives set forth in the Guiding Opinions, two safeguard measures have been proposed.

(1) Strengthen categorized guidance and implement targeted measures. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are to benchmark against world-class standards, take the lead, and spearhead urban parking management, accelerating efforts to address the “parking shortage” in megacities. In line with Guangzhou’s vision of revitalizing its historic urban core and its “Four New Achievements” initiative, as well as Shenzhen’s mandate to build a pioneering demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics, these cities should establish model frameworks for urban parking governance. Meanwhile, Shenzhen and Zhuhai are to tailor their approaches to local conditions, prioritizing the development of park-and-ride (P&R) systems at border checkpoints and along the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge (in Zhuhai). Other cities within the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area should, in accordance with the overarching goal of fostering high‑quality living, working, and tourism environments, cultivate first‑rate urban parking governance frameworks within their respective provinces. Additionally, other prefecture‑level cities are to formulate region‑specific policies and measures for parking development, aligned with relevant planning requirements. Relevant provincial departments shall, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, oversee and guide localities in advancing urban parking governance.

(II) Adopt a multi-pronged approach to ensure practical results. All localities are to address urban parking challenges through policy support, institutional safeguards, and fiscal investment. In light of local conditions, they should formulate implementation guidelines, refine responsibility matrices, establish timelines and roadmaps, and ensure meticulous planning and execution to achieve tangible results. Each year, they shall assess the effectiveness of urban parking management, promptly adjust key work plans, prepare annual evaluation reports, and submit these reports to the provincial government by year’s end.