Outward opening doors of outlets pose threat to pedestrians

Doors of several establishments, situated mainly along some narrow streets in Doha, are causing considerable difficulties to pedestrians, it is learnt.

Since the doors of some outlets open outwards, customers have to pull them for entering. Similarly, those coming out of such shops need to push the doors towards the street for exiting. There have been many instances of such doors hitting pedestrians as well as those exiting the establishments. Some of the residents feel it is high time municipal authorities put in place effective laws to stop building owners from installing doors which open outwards, to the pavements. They suggest installing sliding doors as an alternate solution.

While it was quite usual in the past to have such doors, what surprises many is that even new buildings are equipped with the same kind of doors and they continue to cause difficulties for pedestrians in a big way, especially in those locations where there are parking slots in front of the buildings.
Even an overwhelming majority of the renovated buildings also have doors which open towards the pavements.
Recently, when a customer opened the door of a restaurant on the Najma Street, it accidentally banged against a pedestrian and heated arguments and counter arguments followed for a while. Such scenes are said to be common in the Souq area.