Starting from November 1, motorists must pay for ticket from 8am to midnight

Sharjah: Motorists will have to pay for parking until midnight in zones marked by blue signs in Sharjah, starting from November 1.

Sharjah City Municipality on Sunday posted on its X account that paid parking timings will be from 8am to 12am in ‘7-day zones’, where fees apply every day of the week. These are marked by blue information signs.
Currently, parking is paid from 8am to 10pm, both in 7-day zones and regular areas.

Parking is free on Fridays and public holidays, except in 7-day zones, which charge fees on all days.

The new timing will, however, also apply during Ramadan in all areas.

Why extend parking hours?
Hamid Al Qaid, Director of the Public Parking Department at Sharjah City Municipality, stated that the emirate is experiencing significant tourism, commercial, and residential growth. To support this development, implementing fees for public parking is essential and demonstrates the municipality's commitment to minimising misuse of these facilities.

He added that the new timing for paid parking throughout the week and on official holidays – in the 7-day zones – was implemented based on studies and follow-ups of public observations and reports regarding the misuse of parking spaces after 10pm.

Comparisons were made with other cities that operate parking systems, and in line with the economic growth that has made Sharjah a city with continuous activity until late at night. This necessitated organising vehicle parking for longer periods to accommodate this growth and meet the needs of visitors and residents in these areas, who have been facing difficulties in finding parking spaces after 10pm.

“Seasonal subscription holders and patrons of restaurants and cafes find it difficult to find parking after 10pm, which becomes a source of anxiety before returning home, due to the lack of available parking spaces at that time, forcing them to park far away after numerous attempts,” the municipality said in a statement.

The Sharjah City Municipality stated that the municipality conducted a public opinion survey regarding the possibility of extending the working hours of public parking in tourist and vital areas to gauge public opinion on the amendment. The results showed a significant majority in favor of the timing adjustment, which would enable a large segment of the public to secure parking spots.

No fee hike
Al Qaid clarified that the increase in paid hours will not lead to any increase in the subscription service fees for parking, as they will remain at their current price. In fact, subscribers to the parking service will receive an additional two hours daily, as the previous permit granted an exemption from parking fees for 14 hours a day, which will now be 16 hours.

The director noted that the new timing would allow seasonal subscription holders to obtain vacant parking spots until midnight. He mentioned that the municipality is working on raising public awareness about the new timing and reaching the largest possible audience by sending text messages to users and distributing flyers on vehicles in areas where public parking will see timing adjustments, placing these flyers on the windshields of vehicles to alert their owners.

Paid parking expansion plan
He noted that the municipality continues its efforts to prepare “all areas of the city of Sharjah and subject the parking spaces to fees to provide service to the public, meet their needs, and facilitate their convenience”.

Since the beginning of this year, it has prepared and subjected 16,000 parking spaces to fees, bringing the total number of public parking spaces subject to fees in the city of Sharjah to 86,000 spaces.