China News Service, November 11. According to the website of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, with the consent of the Shanghai Municipal Government, the "Notice on Optimizing the City's Road Parking Charging Policy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") was recently issued and will be officially implemented on November 18, 2026.
The "Notice" mentioned that if a single motor vehicle is parked in a Shanghai road parking lot for less than 15 minutes (inclusive), road parking fees will be waived for a limited time. If a single parking time exceeds 15 minutes, charges will be calculated from the starting time of vehicle entry and parking. Free short-term parking does not apply to pay-per-use temporary on-road parking.
The specific contents of the "Notice" are as follows:
Notice on optimizing the city’s road parking charging policy
All district development and reform commissions, transportation commissions (construction and transportation commissions), and finance bureaus:
In order to further optimize the allocation of road parking resources in our city, improve the efficiency of parking space utilization, and continue to deepen the refined management of road traffic, in accordance with the "Price Law of the People's Republic of China", "Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China", "Shanghai Parking Lot (Warehouse) Management Measures", "Guiding Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport on Further Improving the Motor Vehicle Parking Service Charging Policy" and other laws, regulations and policy documents, with the consent of the municipal government, the relevant matters regarding the optimization of the city's road parking charging policy are hereby notified as follows:
1. Scope of application
This notice applies to road parking lots within the administrative area of our city that are set up by the municipal and district public security and traffic management departments in conjunction with the transportation administrative department, and the district transportation administrative department implements toll management.
2. Policy content
(1) Billing rules
Our city's road parking lots implement hourly charging and segmented progressive charging models. The hourly billing unit for smart road parking lots is 15 minutes, and the hourly billing unit for manual toll road parking lots is 30 minutes. If a motor vehicle is parked for less than one billing unit, the fee will be calculated as one billing unit.
For temporary road parking lots set up for holding large-scale events, major events, etc., pay-per-use is implemented.
(2) Toll area
Our city's road parking lots are divided into the following four types of charging areas, and differentiated charging management is implemented by region.
Category 1 areas: key areas within the inner ring road;
Category II area: other areas within the inner ring line except the Category I area;
Category III areas: the area between the inner and outer ring lines and the four main urban areas and five new cities outside the outer ring lines;
Category 4 area: Other areas outside the outer ring line except the Category 3 area.
(3) Charging standards
Road parking lots within the above four types of charging areas implement tiered price management according to parking duration during the day, and implement corresponding charging standards. During the night period, timely billing and fee capping management are implemented. The starting time for parking charges during the night period can be appropriately adjusted by the local transportation administrative department according to the specific circumstances and implemented after being announced to the public. For road parking lots in road sections around qualified residential areas that provide monthly parking services to residents on weekday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, and all day holidays, monthly charges can be implemented in accordance with the corresponding charging standards. Please see Table 1 and Table 2 for specific charging standards.
For temporary road parking lots set up for holding large-scale events, major events, etc., charges will be based on the first 2 hours of charging in the area.
Image source: Shanghai Development and Reform Commission website
Image source: Shanghai Development and Reform Commission website
(4) Short-term free parking
If a single motor vehicle is parked in our city's road parking lot for a single parking period of less than 15 minutes (inclusive), road parking fees will be waived for a limited time. If a single parking time exceeds 15 minutes, charges will be calculated from the starting time of vehicle entry and parking. Free short-term parking does not apply to pay-per-use temporary on-road parking.
A single motor vehicle can enjoy free short-term parking of 15 minutes twice a day on weekdays, and can enjoy free short-term parking of 15 minutes three times a day on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and holidays.
3. Relevant work requirements
(1) Strictly regulate charging behavior
Our city's road parking charges are administrative charges, and "two lines of revenue and expenditure" management are strictly implemented. All the fee revenue is turned over to the national treasury and included in the general public budget management.
Relevant departments in each district should strictly implement the prescribed charging items, charging standards, and billing methods. If it is indeed necessary to adjust the division of parking fee areas based on local conditions due to regional traffic and other conditions, after a comprehensive evaluation, the district government will send a letter to the municipal development and reform, transportation, and finance departments to propose adjustments to the division of parking fee areas on some roads in the administrative region. If the municipal development and reform department, together with the municipal transportation, finance and other departments, considers that adjustments are indeed necessary, they will jointly reply to the district government to agree to the implementation.
The transportation administrative departments in each district must strictly implement the regulations on clear price tags, standardize the public disclosure of charging standards, billing rules, supervision telephone numbers, etc., and actively accept social supervision.
(2) Properly implement policies
The municipal and district development and reform, transportation, finance, and public security and traffic control departments shall do a good job in policy publicity and explanation according to the division of responsibilities. All departments will work together to make preparations, strengthen the guidance and supervision of road parking charging work, and ensure the orderly connection and smooth transition of policies. The public security traffic control and transportation departments have strengthened on-site law enforcement management and traffic guidance to ensure road traffic order.
(3) Strengthen supervision during and after the event
The municipal development and reform and transportation departments, together with the municipal finance and other departments, have established a regular monitoring and supervision mechanism to continuously track the effectiveness of policy implementation and conduct evaluations of policy implementation effects. The evaluation results serve as an important basis for optimizing the setting of road parking spaces, adjusting charging policies in a timely manner, and improving the parking management system.
This notice will officially come into effect on November 18, 2026. If the policies and regulations related to road parking charges previously issued by our city are inconsistent with this notice, this notice shall prevail.
