Heavy vehicles occupy whatever open spaces around residential neighbourhoods, denying people living in the area the option of finding parking space near their homes. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

By Peter Townson/Staff ReporterResidents in Qatar have again bemoaned the lack of parking space available in residential areas, pointing to the large numbers of heavy vehicles that continue to be parked in these spaces, despite a law prohibiting such ‘parking’.In heavily-populated areas of the city, families with more than one car struggle every day to find suitable parking close enough to their homes as many residential buildings have just one parking slot for each apartment.When searching for adequate parking, they are often left frustrated by the number of heavy vehicles that take up a great deal of the open grounds, and potential parking areas, near to residential buildings.Some residents have even received parking violations for parking their cars in whatever space they can find and point to the large number of heavy vehicles in their neighbourhoods for their minor, but costly, ‘parking’ infringements.The issue is symptomatic of the chronic problem with parking throughout Doha, with areas of West Bay also heavily affected by a lack of spaces.During work hours, parking areas attached to many of the towers in West Bay are completely full, with visitors struggling to find any place to leave their cars. This has even led the City Center to introduce paid parking, aimed at discouraging people from parking their cars in the supermarket’s covered car park and going to work in the surrounding buildings.These parking concerns will be eased by a number of new projects such as the Sheraton Park area, which will eventually offer a new space for some 4,000 cars. However, the project is not scheduled to be completed until around 2015, and so it seems drivers will have to continue to struggle to find sufficient space for the time being.In residential areas, however, this struggle is made even more challenging due to the presence of heavy vehicles, and it seems that despite recent efforts to improve the situation, the problem remains a serious one for many people in Doha. Attempts have been made to alleviate the problems associated with truck parking and to reduce congestion that heavy vehicles cause on Doha’s roads over the past few years. In 2010 a governmental committee’s recommendations for providing more parking areas for trucks were approved. Last year, the Barwa al Baraha Park was launched in the Industrial Area, providing space for some 4,200 trucks and providing the largest parking facility in the world.And a law was passed banning the parking of heavy vehicles in residential areas, with officials claiming that the presence of the vehicles not only poses difficulties for other road users, but also raises issues related to children’s safety in such areas as well as causing other problems.Gulf Times has witnessed the large number of trucks and other heavy vehicles parked on a daily basis in one residential suburb of Doha and found drivers parking their vehicles overnight, every night.“There is no problem parking here,” said one South Asian driver, explaining that a large number of his colleagues park in the area each evening.He said that although he had heard that there is a truck parking facility somewhere outside of town, he had not been informed of its exact whereabouts, and had never made use of the park.It would seem that this is a familiar story, as many drivers are unaware of the parking facilities in the Industrial Area, and choose instead to take on the challenges of finding spaces to occupy in town.However, their presence does not go down well with residents who face parking struggles themselves.“It is really irritating to come home from work in the evening, and to have to park so far away from my apartment because all the surrounding areas are full,” said one resident in a badly affected area. “It is bad enough with all the people living in this area, but when there are trucks parked here as well it just makes things so much worse.”However, even if truck drivers were to use the Industrial Area facilities, this would lead to the problem of them causing more congestion on the roads when travelling to and from the park.And so it seems that residents are basically trading off their parking spaces for fewer trucks on the roads each day, which when taken into consideration, might make this apparently bitter pill a little easier to swallow.