Parking poses a daunting problem!

Article published in Gulf-Times (28-11-2007)

Parking in Doha has become a daunting task nowadays. Visiting souqs and shopping malls, especially, is a horrible experience. Finding a parking space at malls and hypermarkets is near-impossible on Thursday, Friday and Saturday or any other holiday.

In downtown Doha, motorists either get a sticker from the traffic police or get bumped into by some beginner trying to park in a tight space.

One of the main reasons for the crisis is that most new residential apartments don’t provide car parking facilities. If they do, then it’s not enough. Apartment buildings in semi-commercial and commercial areas are the worst affected. At these areas residents find it hard to get a parking space because small offices or shops occupy the ground level.

Although rents for these new apartments are extremely high, the owners want to top them up by closing the ground floor parking space by building shops to earn a few thousand riyals more. The question arises: who issued the permit to build such residential apartments without a single parking space?

Many residents in Doha have voiced their concerns about the declining availability of their own parking spaces at their residential premises as more mid-scale apartment projects get under way in the same fashion.

Because of this the residents who are forced to park their cars in prohibited areas and risk receiving fines, want the Doha Municipality to look into the issue seriously.

Most of the higher authorities agree that the parking problem has had a serious psychological impact on the car owners and drivers who are always worried about the parking tickets. The employees’ output has been affected since the parking problem is playing all the time at the back of the minds of most of them, both at office and home.

A recent study says that around 60,000 to 75,000 vehicles are added to Doha roads every year, while the parking spaces remain the same. The problem has several causes: the increase in urban population, the lack of parking spaces for residents and commercial outlets and the reluctance of most of the shopowners and offices to park their vehicles in front of their shops and offices from morning to night.

This common problem can be seen mostly near semi-commercial areas where the free roadside parking spaces are blocked by small, commercial outlet owners. This is particularly so near car spare part shops, upholstery shops, cargo agents and groceries. This can be seen widely around busy souq areas.

The problem of parking has grown to such an extent that motorists find it difficult to drive even on service roads because both sides of the road are full of illegally parked vehicles. Even the traffic police find it difficult to keep these roads clear of cars. Service roads, particularly on C and B Ring roads and surrounding Doha Jadeed, Bin Ghanim, Ummghuwailina and souq areas are the worst, where motorists park their vehicles on both sides of the road, leaving little room for traffic.

Heavy weight vehicles such as trucks and large pickups are yet another cause of this growing problem. They occupy free public parking spaces for days for their fleets of vehicles in residential and commercial areas. To solve the parking problem, studies should be carried out by the municipality urgently. Special parking areas should be provided for taxis and public buses.

Although a number of parking lots have been built for new roads, there is still a scarcity of parking space everywhere. If this problem is not tackled properly, the city will face a major headache in the years to come.