Police step up traffic campaign

Al Ain police have taken strong steps to curb excessive speeding, anti-social parking and other traffic offences.

Al Ain police will crack down on parking violations in their month-long parking campaign titled 'Illegal Parking Delays You and Others'.

ABU DHABI // The Al Ain Police Department has issued 7,801 tickets for traffic violations, including red light running, speeding and parking offences, between March and August 18. Participating in Abu Dhabi Police's month-long parking campaign titled 'Illegal Parking Delays You and Others', the Al Ain Police have stepped up their efforts to curb illegal parking.

Since the new traffic penalties system began in March, Al Ain Police have handed out more than 4,000 parking tickets. Of those tickets, 887 were for parking in a red zone and 116 for parking in a yellow zone. Twelve tickets were issued during the past six months to people who parked their vehicles in the left hand lane and 71 for parking on a crosswalk. There were 94 cases of people parking their vehicles in a manner that blocked others from moving their vehicles and 83 for stopping in the middle of the road without good cause.

A further 37 tickets were issued to taxi drivers for picking up passengers in areas other than taxi stands, while 1,851 tickets were given out for cars parked in a manner that impeded the flow of traffic. Forty-one tickets were handed out to those who left their cars running unattended. Parking in a loading and unloading zone resulted in 25 violations, while parking on the shoulder in a non-emergency resulted in six tickets. Fifty-one people received tickets for parking in a manner that endangered the public while 299 were fined for the offence 'improper use of a parking space'. An additional, 1,018 tickets were handed out for parking on the pavement.

According to Al Ain Police, the greatest congestion occurs in the Al Ain downtown which is where the majority of tickets were written. As part of its contribution to the on-going parking campaign, Al Ain Police are sending emails to businesses asking them to notify their customers that parking illegally affects everyone. Also, residents will be sent SMS messages asking for help in curbing illegal parking and flyers in English, Arabic and Urdu are being passed out to motorists at various intersections. @Email:[e-mail]