Parking in Qatar has long been a hassle, increasingly so as the population hits an all-time high.

To tackle the crunch, the country’s Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning is proposing several ideas:

• Charging for parking in public areas. Paying for parking has already been implemented at Souq Waqif, City Center mall and the airport, with varying degrees of success at reducing traffic congestion there. Charging more the longer a car is parked will discourage vehicle usage, the plan states

• Building more parking garages, particularly around Doha, Al Rayyan, Umm Salal, Daain and Al Wakra. Ashgal has just finished building a 1,000-space car park in Dafna, for example, and another one is in the works near Souq Waqif. 

• Housing people near their workplaces and establishing schools, clinics and commercial businesses near homes to encourage walking and reduce congestion. (Sidewalks, presumably, will be a part of this plan.)  

• Requiring new buildings to have an approved parking plan in place before construction. This will apply for both public and private sector projects, the plan states.

• Building a metro that allows people to park their cars near the stations and use public transport to go to work and other areas.

Sounds like some good ideas!

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Guillaume Lemoine