Shanghai held a public consultation last month on a draft plan to relieve its chronic shortage of car parking spaces. But even if it is implemented, the plan is unlikely to be of much help.
The city government is considering ways to better use car parks in residential compounds after people drive their cars to work.
The draft suggests residential compounds should open up and lease their parking spaces to nearby office workers during the day - but the idea has not gone down well with residents.
Another suggestion would see vacant land turned into temporary, open-air car parks, but that has sparked concerns about how long such temporary car parks might last.
And anyway, Zhou Huai, deputy director of Shanghai's Transport and Port Administration Bureau, admitted during the consultation hearing that parking spaces would remain in short supply no matter what the authorities tried.
A slew of new data easily explains why. A survey by the city's traffic authorities showed Shanghai needs at least 367,000 extra parking spaces in the city centre, a 47 per cent rise.