Parking problems in Abu Dhabi, UAE toward an intelligent parking management system “ADIP: Abu Dhabi Intelligent Parking”

Car parking is a serious problem in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in general and in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular. This problem has been associated with the exceptional growth in the number of cars, buses, trucks, and other modes of transportation over the past few decades. In Abu Dhabi (the capital city of UAE), finding a parking at some locations is a real challenge due to the lack of available parking slots in the city. In 2009, in order to organize the randomness in parking management in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi City started implementing a new paid parking system inside the city, named MAWAQIF. This new system helps in reducing the parking problem in congested areas, yet has transferred the problem to less crowded areas in the city. Furthermore, the number of parking lots provided in the controlled areas isn't enough to satisfy the demand in these areas. This article concentrates on this direction and focuses on two aspects. First, a survey was prepared and distributed to 500 participants as a part of a project, in order to identify the scale of the parking problem in Abu Dhabi. Then, a technical framework for developing an intelligent mobile application for improving the indoor parking management system in Abu Dhabi was developed. Results indicate that the proposed mobile application will help in reducing the time wasted in searching for parking and will increase the efficiency of the parking system in Abu Dhabi.