Why DMC visitors still go around in circles

When visiting Dubai Media City (DMC), there are two things likely to see: an officer handing out parking fines, and almost every spot on the side of the road used for parking.

Visiting DMC by car has become a hassle, as the parking options for visitors have been severely limited.

DMC was among the Tecom localities that were subjected to a new parking management system this year. The majority of the parking slots were allocated to Tecom established companies, which in turn were tasked with the distribution of these parking slots among their employees.

The scheme was introduced by Tecom Investments and the Road and Transport Authority (RTA), aimed towards a more hassle-free parking situation prioritising the free zone staff, because the area is growing and traffic increasing.

Leaving aside the happiness of the employees, for visitors the place has become a parking nightmare.

Most talked about is Media City. A popular free zone business park housing 1,300 local and international companies, and host to numerous events, it currently has three areas reserved for visitor parking; one on both sides of the lake, and one towards Al Sufouh Road.

More recently, an off-street car park with 670 new slots was completed near the MBC, Reuters and CNN buildings. Of these new slots, 450 are metered and available to visitors.

The remaining space for visitors mostly consists of on-street metered parking zones, or one-vehicle wide strips alongside the road, explained a spokesperson of Tecom Investments.

The metered parking zones are not used by visitors alone. “I usually work night shifts, but one week per month, I work during the day. For me, it did not make sense to have a parking permit. I park my car at the metered parking zone,” said Walid Deehbha, who works in Media City.

Another Media City employee indicated that he uses the metered parking zone in order to park near his office, in the absence of a permit to park in the parking area closer to his office.

“In the early morning, a parking space is easy to find in the metered parking zone,” said Walid. However, as soon as the office times set in, most spots fill up, and the random visitor faces the brunt.

“What a lot of these people do is that they park here in the morning and pay for an hour. Then they stay for the rest of the day,” said the parking guard.

“That is why there are so many fines handed out. In one shift I have seen the police patrolling in the area three times, handing out fines here and there.”

What complicates matters is that the parking slot that is available on the south-side of the lake is occasionally closed in preparation for and during events, due to its vicinity to the Media City Amphitheatre.

This was the case in the past weeks, when 64 parking slots were affected. Staff guarding the fenced off area told this website: “We see a lot of people searching for parking here. Basically there is an event every month, so this happens a lot.”

However, the newly added parking slots are located opposite the Amphitheatre, which compensates for the temporary closure for events, argued Tecom Investments.

“Dubai Media City’s Amphitheatre hosts some fantastic events, which are very popular with the general public. In order to prepare for these occasions, and to ensure the safety of both people and cars located within the free zone, it is sometimes necessary to cordon-off small sections of parking space.

“We are conscious that this situation can cause inconvenience to some business partners and visitors. This feedback has been taken on board and we are considering ways of ensuring that these events can still be hosted safely, but with the minimum amount of impact on the parking space available in the area,” commented the spokesperson.

In a live Twitter session with the RTA on October 28 where customers were invited to discuss their questions, suggestions, or complaints, the parking woes of Tecom were repeatedly raised.

“Before you implemented your system all was well, no one complained. Now there are issues. How is it an improvement?” tweeted a resident with the Twitter handle @Nagham

“As a business in DMC, I’d like to point out that clients cannot visit us as there is no possibility of parking,” said a Dubai Media City employee by the Twitter name @ptrodd.

The agreement between RTA and Tecom Investments aims to streamline the use of public parking, reduce traffic grids, provide the largest possible number of parking slots for users, and curb the disorderly and dangerous parking practices undermining the safety of road users, said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA earlier.

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