Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) originating from vehicle exhaust have aroused much attention due to their potential healthy effect. In this study, air samples were collected from three representative parking lots in a metropolitan area, analyzed for PAHs and evaluated for inhalation risk. Atmospheric PAH levels of these parking areas ranged between 1178-4793 ng m(-3), one order of magnitude higher than general urban areas. Their benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (BaPeq) values varied in 11.0-98.0 ng m(-3), far exceeding the air quality standard of WHO (1.0 ng m(-3)). Monte Carlo simulation (100,000 trials) results suggest that the potential lifetime inhalation cancer risks of PAHs were 0.27 x 10(-5) to 7.11 x 10(-5) for park employees, which are in the acceptable range acknowledged by US EPA (1.0 x 10(-6) to 1.0 x 10(-4)). Several source diagnostic methods proved that vehicle exhaust was the dominant PAH contributor of these parks with the contribution percentages being >53%; oil combustion and/or coal combustion were other important sources. Logarithms of gas-particle distribution coefficients (K(p)s) of PAHs in all studied parks were linearly correlated with those of both their sub-cooled vapor pressures (P(L)s) and octanol-air partition coefficients (K(OA)s). The correlation coefficients indicated that both adsorption onto black carbon and absorption into organic matter were involved in the partition process, but the latter was dominant. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.