Dubai: If you have not used a paid parking facility in Dubai for some time, it is important to make sure you renew your parking ticket as soon as it expires. This is because long-time motorists may have forgotten that there is no grace period to renew your ticket before a fine is issued. This was the experience of a Gulf News reader, who recently wrote in.
He said: “I was totally unaware that the 10 minutes grace period [for parking tickets] was abolished. Recently within three weeks, I got two parking fines, one for 10 minutes, three weeks ago, and the second one for a seven-minute delay this week.
“The last time around, unfortunately, my mobile switched off at 5pm and the ticket expired at 5.23pm. I had to stop my work at a site to get to the parking machine in order to extend my parking ticket at 5.30pm, which was valid till 6.30pm. It took me seven minutes to reach the parking machine from the building. But when I reached home and recharged my mobile, I was shocked to see an SMS as well as an email from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) regarding the fine given to me at 5.29pm. It was very painful to pay fines with such a fine margin of error.”
Another Gulf News reader wrote in, saying: "I am not aware that the 10 minutes grace period for renewal of paid parking has been abolished. I got a penalty within just four minutes of expiry of paid parking time."
No grace period for expired parking tickets
In September 2010, the RTA announced that motorists would no longer have a 10-minute grace period before a fine is issued on an expired parking ticket.
This means that you should renew your parking ticket immediately, whether by placing a parking ticket clearly visible on your dashboard, or by paying for the ticket using your phone through the mParking facility.
If you are a regular user of paid parking facilities, you may also consider buying a parking card, which can help avoid parking fines.
