Parking puzzles

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Erik Ferguson.

The debate on public versus private transport usage continues to heat up. Urban planning expert Erik Ferguson tells Michele Howe where parking design fits into the picture.

It was somewhat ironic that my efforts to attend last month's Middle East Parking Symposium in Abu Dhabi, the first such event in the region, were thwarted by transport problems although not as is often the case directly related to difficulties finding a parking space.

With the population in the UAE expected to significantly increase over the next few years, parking is a huge issue.

Assuming they get cars, as many people settling in the region do, how will there be space for these new arrivals on roads already severely congested at peak hours? Once they get to their destination, where are all these people going to park? How much parking is being built in anticipation of these extra entrants in new residential and commercial developments and will it be enough? Or is the hope that within a few years the congestion will be alleviated by the fact that many people will have switched to using public transport methods?

Fortunately, I managed to catch up after the symposium with Erik Ferguson, master of the urban planning programme at the School of Architecture and Design at the American University of Sharjah, and a speaker at the event, to discuss his views on these issues and on how parking design fits into the bigger picture.

One of the key issues, he believes, will be how actual usage of the public transport system corresponds to predicted usage of the system.

At present, only 6% of people in Dubai use public transport, according to figures from Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) cited earlier this year in local newspaper Gulf News.

"This is going to be the issue - how deep can the market penetration go on public transportation in the UAE?," Ferguson asks rhetorically.

"[Authorities] are looking at very ambitious goals for public transportation in this region, but in order to achieve them they are going to have to provide a quality of service that is competitive with the car."

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