RTA confirms paid parking in The Greens by end of October

Paid parking will be introduced to The Greens for on-street parking in the community.

This week residents reported the installment of paid-parking signposts on the side of the road, where until now they had been able to park for free.

By the end of the month, on-street parking in the community will be a paid-parking facility, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) confirmed to Emirates24|7.

The RTA and Emaar have an agreement that the RTA is responsible for the management of public roads in the community, and parking facilities are a part of that responsibility, explained Adel al Marzouki, Director of Parking at the RTA.

“We aim to control the parking in this area. Right now there are people who park their cars for a long time, because it is for free. As a result parking space is not always available.

“With this measure we are hoping to make parking spaces more available to the residents of the community.”

The new paid-parking zone will be a public parking zone, meaning that the rules and regulations of any paid parking zone in the emirate will apply.

“The area is not a unique area, such as is the case in Tecom, for example. The seasonal parking cards will be valid in The Greens, and the usual rate of Dh2 per hour applies,” added al Marzouki.

He recommended residents who require long-term parking in the community to opt for a seasonal card, as it will be cheaper than paying the hourly rate.

Residents will mostly be served by the A category card, which allows on-street parking in public areas in the emirate.

The cost of this card is Dh700 for 3 months, Dh1,300 for 6 months, and Dh2,500 for one year.

Residents speak

Although at least one parking space is allocated per apartment in the underground parking garage, many families have more than one car, and are bound to park their second car on the street.

“This will affect the residents most of all,” said Kinana Homsi-Mardini, who lives in The Greens. Her family owns two cars, and only one parking permit is allocated as per their contractual agreement. Residents have started an online petition urging the RTA and Emaar to allow free street parking in the Greens for residents.

“Most of families have two cars and only 3-bedroom apartments have two basement parking spaces, which means a lot of people are parking on the street. As a reminder, there are NO free public parking spaces anywhere close to the Greens,” reads the petition.

More paid parking zones?

Asked whether the paid parking scheme would be implemented in other areas in the near future, Al Marzouki answered that this is, indeed, the case, as certain areas in Dubai require parking management.

“Areas where shopping centers are coming up, or other venues have been introduced require parking management, such as is the case in Jumeirah Road, Wasl Road, and Nadd Al Hamar Road.

“Wherever we see a problem in parking availability, we step in. We do not do this to create revenue, as some people would suggest. Parking management serves the people in these areas.

“For example, the introduction of paid-parking increases a parking space turnover. Before we introduced paid parking around the Fish Market, a parking space was used by two cars a day, while one slot is now used by 11 cars a day.

“People stay for shorter periods, or they now use public transportation when they come to the area. Both of these are objectives of the RTA,” Al Marzouki said.

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