Here is what to do when someone has blocked your parked car

You are running late for work. As you have rushed through your morning ritual and hastened your way to the parking area with the prospective of only a couple of minutes to  cover the distance from here to  office, you discover that all your efforts have just become void, as another car is double-parked in front of yours and you are not able to go anywhere.

Plenty of residents have at least once experienced the scenario, having to blame the anonymous other driver for their late arrival at work. “There was a period when the same car blocked mine almost every morning, my boss would hardly believe me after I told the story three times,” said Tom Lievenstein, a German resident in Tecom area.

“In front of my building we can park for free. This means that it is not always easy to find a parking space. As a solution, one person would park his or her big SUV in front of that of others and give the key to the security guard of her office, with the instruction to move the car whenever someone would leave an empty spot.”

“It would take at least 5 minutes every time before the guard became aware of my insistent horn-honking, and I am sure this was not a pleasant noise to spread in the area in the first place.”

The double-parker appears in many ways, depending on the purpose of the act. “An incident that I have noted several times and experienced myself is someone parking the car in front of mine or that of others with the engine running, the hazard lights on, but no one in the car.

“It is extremely time consuming as I have to wait for the driver to return to the vehicle before I can leave,” narrates Siddharth Birla, an Indian resident in Bur Dubai.

“Luckily the situation in Dubai is not as bad as in other places,” knows Adel al Marzouki, Director of Parking at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). “But we do receive complaints about certain areas from time to time.”

Double parking is a violation in any case, he explains. “There are drop off zones where it is allowed to halt the car for this purpose, but if there is no dedicated area double parking is not allowed and can be fined with Dh200.”

“Drop off points are created when there is a large demand in a certain area,” he continues. “This is always after a traffic impact study is carried out, and it is concluded that there is a need for such facility.

“Sometimes a situation changes. When a premise is turned into a shop, or a shop into a supermarket, the owner of that premise should apply for approval, which will lead to a traffic impact study from our side. If we conclude that the place will attract an increased number of customers or office staff we might have to change the facilities.”

The solution does not always lie in a drop off zone, however. One and a half year ago, an area in Hor al Anz generated parking-related problems, with people complaining of people double-parking their car, the director said.

“After we received these complaints, we studied the area, and we responded with the implementation of a paid parking scheme, whereas the area used be a free parking area. After the scheme was implemented, double parking did not occur anymore and everybody paid for the parking space he was using.”

When somebody faces a car blocking the exit from a parking space, he can call the RTA or Dubai Police,  and the owner of the vehicle can be traced and asked to remove the vehicle.

Both authorities work together when it comes to parking violations. Whereas the RTA handles violations in paid parking zones, Dubai Police hands out fines in free parking areas., said Al Marzouki.

“When the driver is not in the car, a ticket will be attached to the car. However, if the driver is present we first instruct him to leave the space, and he gets away with a warning.”

Homepage image courtesy Shutterstock

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.