Paid Parking in Dubai Malls

I have mentioned before that Dubai Metro has the potential to change the way Dubai operates. Well, the first change we are going to witness is that the Malls with direct access to the metro stations are going to start charging for parking your vehicle inside the mall parking area.

The two malls to start this charge are the two top malls of Dubai, the Mall of the Emirates, and Deira City Centre, from September 10, 2009, a day after scheduled launch of Dubai Metro.

The rational behind this step is avoid people from leaving their cars at the malls and ride the metro. There are dedicated parking spaces by RTA specifically for this purpose.

But why punish the shoppers who come to the mall to spend money? Why should they pay to park at the mall when they are actually using the mall, not riding the metro?

My initial reaction was same when I first heard the news. But after finding out the details about charges everything became clear and there was no confusion left.

So here is how it is going to work. The paid parking starts after first three hours on weekdays and first four hours on weekend. If you watch a movie at mall cinema then you get extra one hour of free parking.

Now that, I think, should not bother anyone.

I have hardly ever spent more than 3-4 hours in a mall in Dubai. And I don’t see myself spending that much time in future. So it’s free parking for me. Plus it would be easier for me to find parking because only dedicated users would be parking in the mall. It’s a win-win situation.

So I think this is a positive change. I am sure there will be teething problems as it happens with every new thing in Dubai, but after a while everything will be ironed out and people will get used to it.

Let’s see what other changes are waiting to happen after Dubai Metro launch.