The hours of operation of the paid street parking system currently being used in Dammam and Al-Khobar have been set for Ramadan, Hafiz Azzubair, the Eastern Province general manager of the National Parking Company, told Saudi Gazette. During the holy month, parking at the Pay and Display meters in the two cities will be from 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. at a charge of SR1 per hour and from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. for SR2 per hour. At night the time will be from 10.30 P.M. until 2.30 A.M. at a charge of SR2 per hour. As usual, Azzubair said, Friday is free, but from midnight to 2.30 A.M. Friday is paid. However, the same hours on Saturday morning will be free. Eastern Province municipal authorities introduced the new paid parking system, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, on March 20 to control the irregular and often chaotic street parking in Dammam and Al-Khobar and to experiment with systematic street parking in these cities on a trial basis. Azzubair said that a total of 400 Pay and Display machines have been installed in the two cities with over 100 enforcement officers appointed to monitor the system. Drivers desiring to park within the paid parking zones must purchase tickets from Pay and Display machines, which are located on sidewalks within each parking zone. Vehicles must be parked in the clearly marked spacesor else they will be towed and can only be retrieved after a fine of SR50 and towing charges of SR100 have been paid. Parking enforcement officers who patrol the streets issue fines to those who do not display a parking ticket on the dashboard of their parked vehicle or display an expired ticket or violate any other parking regulation. Enforcement officers monitor the time a vehicle has been parked in a paid space and impose parking penalties if it has overstayed its time limit. According to Azzubair, public response to the new system has been very good, as many have come to realize its benefits, which include the increased availability of parking spaces, the ability of shoppers to reach their destinations faster and find parking closer to the shop they want to go to, and the more friendly look of the city with cars parked in designated parking spaces rather than on sidewalks or in pedestrian areas. The municipalities of Riyadh and Jeddah are currently studying proposals to introduce similar paid parking systems in those cities.
