Prof. Panagiotis Papaioannou, Transportation Consultant, SALFO Qatar and Eng. George Lymperopoulos, Transportation and Traffic Engineer, SALFO Qatar, were the guest speakers.

In the first session, Prof. Panagiotis described various key factors required for proper planning, design and management of parking at national, regional and municipal level, such as population, age, gender, population density, income, household size, economy, land use, and accessibility. Prof. Panagiotis’ recommendation for Qatar is to integrate all transport systems, reduce car use to minimize traffic congestion, save the environment and maximize private public partnership opportunities.

In the second session, Eng. George described some of challenges in Qatar where one of the main aspects is the hot summer season. It is recommended to consider a distance of not more than 300m between the parking lots and the building entrance. He also focused on sustainable parking system where both short and long term continuous Parking Evaluation and Monitoring Systems (PEMS) is vital.

In the third session, Prof. Panagiotis showcased a systematic method of parking generation and parking supply calculation developed by the SALFO team and gave emphasis on appropriate parking characteristics survey. He showed various important parameters for the calculations, with examples to integrate them with other transport modes.

Qatar is one of the countries with a high vehicle-to-population ratio. Smart parking system would therefore be very effective especially in the city center area, which can be managed and invested not only by the government but also by private entities.

The presentation was well received by the audience, followed by a detailed question and answer session. This seminar is part of CIHT Qatar Group’s events. The Group thank their sponsors AECOM, BG&E, DCE, EGIS, FUGRO, MUHEL, PAF, PTV Group, SALFO, SEERO and WSP for their generous contribution to the event.

Technical Seminar on “Parking policy, management and application” on September 18, 2019.

Prof. Panagiotis Papaioannou (Left) and Eng. George Lymperopoulos (Right)