By Mohammed Al Sadafy www.emirates247.com
Adel Al Marzouqi, director of the Parking Department at Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has refuted claims that a lack of parking spaces exists in Dubai, forcing people to break the rules.
Popular perception among Dubai residents is that parking violations often happen because of a lack of adequate parking. Respondents said spent a long time searching for a parking spot but to no avail.
Al Marzouqi said in an exclusive statement to Emirates 24|7: “There are three types of parking fines – the first violation is not buying a ticket from the parking machine. The second is not to renew the ticket after it ends, and the third is to park cars at random places, particularly on the pavements, to double park or occupy two parking slots.
He pointed out that the RTA statistics of 2010 showed that the percentage of irregularities relating to parking cars in random places, did not exceed 23 per cent of the total violations.
Al Marzouqi said the RTA had adequate parking. It conducted studies of the control areas and the violation of parking in forbidden places. Such studies helped in determining whether certain areas need more parking or not.
Al Marzouqi said the RTA has increased the number of parking slots in 2010 and 2011 by more than 30% of the total number of parking in 2009.
The RTA is currently working to increase the number of parking slots in various areas of the emirate. It is currently running five of multi-storey parking lots, located in crowded areas in the emirate, namely, (Naif, Al Sabkha, Al Riga and Al Ghubaiba). RTA is also examining a number of areas in the emirate to create a multi-storey parking.
Regarding the monitoring of parking, he said inspectors conduct daily campaigns to ensure space and take necessary action against offenders such as truck parking, exceeding the number of vehicles parked for the maximum of the space, and dumping of waste and residues in the area.
RTA has 669 inspectors, and they work in the morning and night. They use an automated system to note irregularities to avoid any mistakes.
The fines for parking violations include four types – non- payment of the prepaid tickets fine is Dh150. Fine for violation of expiring period is Dh100, the fine for parking in forbidden places and on the pavement is Dh200, and violation of the use of parking of those of special needs is Dh500.
He said the RTA is encouraging the use of mass transportation, which reduces and frees parking space.
According to a recent online poll on parking issues, 92 per cent of participants said they did not find adequate parking, and 4 per cent were suffering from lack of time, 3 per cent did not want to walk, and 1 per cent had the inability to walk.
