Most of the sandy areas in the emirate have been fenced and converted as private paid parking zones though they are more expensive than municipality parking rates. This means that residents of Sharjah are in a dilemma having to decide whether they should park their cars in public parking or pay over Dh300 monthly for private parking lots. There have been consistent complaints about the public and private parking from the residents arguing that they have to pay hug amount in addition to severe shortage of parking space. The main lack of parking space is attributed to the rise in the number of residents due to the real estate boom making more people shift to Sharjah.
Most of these people prefer coming with their own cars since they can buy any car that fits in the money they have from the car market instead of using public means of transport. Recently, some building owners increased the annual parking fees from Dh2500 to Dh3500. People staying in Sharjah have resorted to parking far away from the town then they walk to their homes.
The problem of having less parking space intensifies inside the city where 55 paid parking zones which were initially reserved to help out motorists during rush hour, are always full. The parking problem is very serious in areas like Abu Shaghara, Al Qasimiya, Al Butian, Al Mussala, Rolla and Al Ghuwair. Some of the new buildings under construction have their own multi-stored parking lots though most of the old ones don’t have. The current challenge that may bring more issues about congestion and limited parking space is that the municipality regulations that govern the construction of the buildings do not specify the number of parking spaces each building should have according to its size, type and usage.
