Meanwhile, back in Saudi Arabia.....

When the KSA driving ban bites....

The driving ban in Saudi: when it really bites.


I thought you might be interested in getting a personal story on how the KSA driving ban can affect a woman in the region. So here's my story:

We've recently moved to Qatar after a long stint in the UAE and we want to bring our car over from Dubai. The transit route UAE-Qatar is all overland, reasonable roads (though shocking drivers). As you know its the law that women cover in Saudi so I'd change into abaya and sheyla just before the Saudi border and keep them on until I'm in Qatar. I have a cupboard full of abayas so no problem there. The simplest way would be for me to fly back, get the car and drive it over. The trip is just 680kms (422 miles) and if I left Dubai in the morning, even with border crossings, I could be back in Doha by dinner time....but I can't do that. Why? Because for 125kms (that's a mere 78 miles) the transit route passes through Saudi so for that tiny distance I can't drive nor can I hire a driver to do that leg of the trip for me because I can't be in the same car as a man who's not a relative. End result, my husband has to take a day off work, fly back to Dubai, pick up the car, and he'll do the driving within the Saudi borders.

Round and Round

If you look in the Oxford Dictionary for the word 'terror' the definition given is "being in a car in the middle lane on Decorator Roundabout, Doha, Qatar"....wait, whaddaya mean "Its not"? Pfft, if it isn't there already its only a matter of time!

The braindead strut their stuff on Sheikh Zayed Road

Ever thought I was exaggerating about the lousy standard of driving in Dubai?  This video, was filmed on Sheikh Zayed Road the busiest road in Dubai, though fortunately not at peak hour.  Apparently it was all ok because it was part of a 'victory parade' for a local football team that'd had won the Gulf Cup.  Keep an eye out for the 2 Landcruisers and the FJ that are blocking the rest of the traffic.
And only yesterday there was an article in the media about roads in the Middle East being the second most dangerous in the world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzrf7F1rbgY

Stereotypes won't save lives on the UAE's road

If you listen in to 'small talk' at any gathering in Dubai, the first topic won't be the #1 icebreaker in the rest of the world, the weather.  In Dubai, the hot topic will be the roads and the poor standard of driving which is usually illustrated by someone's most recent near-death experience.  Its lethal not only out on the roads themselves, you're not even safe walking on controlled pedestrian crossings either as I know from experience. 
In answer to a recognised problem of dangerous driving, the UAE government has released a 'study' which purports to show that women drivers are causing accidents and traffic jams by driving too slowly thereby causing, nay, compelling, irate drivers to speed, flash their lights, tailgate or rip down the hardshoulder of the highway at high speed. To push the analogy, I suppose some of these impatient drivers then die in high speed pile-ups that are of course, no fault of their own but are caused by the 'soft driving' of female motorists (A familiar ring? You know, 'its not my fault, he threw himself on my cattle prod etc').
Rather than resorting to 'studies' of useless stereotypes why not tackle at least one real problem head-on, do something about parents who allow unrestrained children in their cars, how about huge fines for parents who care so little about their children that they will, for example, drive on SZR at high speed with a child on the driver's lap.
Consider the road toll in Saudi Arabia, its the highest in the world, in 2009 it was 44 deaths per 100,000 people, the number of female drivers involved......zero.
Source: Arabian Business
Photo: Uppercut Images
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We get all sent all sorts of suspect publications here at Arabian Business, but this week’s clear winner is a report entitled ‘Soft Driving: Confusing for Others, or a Model?’
‘Soft driving’ is a moniker that has been attributed to the “more deliberate” approach of female drivers, who are “by nature less rushed”, according to the report from the UAE’s Ministry of the Interior. So really, it should say ‘Women Drivers: Confusing for Others, or a Model?’
It seems like an odd question to ask in the first place, as anyone in the UAE who claims ‘confusion’ at the sight of a woman behind the wheel probably shouldn’t be driving themselves. I wouldn’t like to be on the same stretch of road as a driver who flips out that easily: do they lose hand-eye coordination completely, or just forget where they live? Either way, they sound like a genuine danger, so take away their keys.
For the record, the study finds that of the 3,172 road traffic accidents that were recorded in Abu Dhabi last year, just 256 accidents were caused by women drivers. Men caused a shocking 92 percent of all accidents, fender-bending their way into the record books and contributing manfully to the 963 sorry corpses scraped off UAE roads in 2009.
So if they can’t blame the carnage on women, then what’s going on? In another report issued at the beginning of the month, not leaving enough distance between vehicles was identified as the cause of 547 accidents last year.
That was followed by lack of concern for other drivers (542), not ensuring the road is clear before entering (531), and lack of lane discipline (324). 267 accidents were caused due to jumping the red signal, 148 due to reckless driving and 122 due to speeding.
Of the above categories, ‘lack of concern for other drivers’ is the only one that could possibly encompass that deadly sin of soft driving (aka driving like a girl). That leaves an awful lot of death and destruction squarely on the shoulders of those whose primary concern is to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, regardless of how safely they do it.
The Abu Dhabi police handed out 135 fines to motorists driving below the minimum speed limit on highways and inner-city roads last year. Fair play, those drivers broke the rules, and were punished. But let’s not miss the point: slow drivers are more of a nuisance than a menace, and should be the least of the Ministry’s worries.
Let’s spend less time asking odd questions based on baseless stereotypes, and more time targeting those who race down our roads as though they are playing some videogame in which no-one is really killed, maimed, widowed or orphaned.
It’s the impatient, inconsiderate idiots that overtake recklessly and without a care for other road users, who deserve to be the focus of our opprobrium. Someone should remind them that it’s better to get to their destination a few minutes late, than never at all.

Even by Dubai standards, this is quite bad driving....

Photo taken 27 Dec on the UAE side of the border fence, just before Madam.

News Flash: Motorists in the UAE drive like maniacs

Its more than just 'confusing', it can be fatal.

Further to the earlier post, this from ArabianBusiness.com:

A majority of people think that motorists in the UAE “drive like maniacs” and are to blame for the country having some of the world’s most dangerous roads.

Health officials have urged the UAE government to tighten motoring laws after a World Health Organisation (WHO) report found people here are almost seven times more likely to be killed on the roads than those in Britain.

A spot poll by Arabian Business found that 69.7 percent of respondents agreed UAE highways were among the most hazardous in the world. They pointed the finger at other motorists who drive recklessly.

Surprisingly, 7.8 percent of people thought that roads here were among the safest.

The UAE is the worst performer in the region, with significantly more road deaths per head of population than Bahrain (12.1 per 100,000), Kuwait (16.9), Oman (21.3), Qatar (23.7), Saudi Arabia (29).

Comments left on the ArabianBusiness.com site were almost unanimous in agreement that bad and aggressive driving was to blame.

Sticky wrote: “I will tell you what a local acquaintance said when I asked why she didn't use her indicators when driving... her answer was "Why should I? I know where I'm going." LOL that sums it up nicely doesn't it!

Rowland said: ‘Witness the incredible total lack of lane discipline and tailgating and there you have most of the reasons for the resulting problems.

GMatths was clear on what action should be taken by governments. “The authorities should take strict action and suspend and cancel all the licenses of these idiots. Even if you are a careful driver its hell driving here,” they wrote.

Road works were blamed by 14.2 percent of respondents to the poll, while 8.3 percent blamed terrible signage.

UAE roads amongst the world's most deadly.

From the National

The daily reality is that driving in Dubai is deadly, literally. The by-line for my blog says it all; "There's no such thing as a dangerous, high speed chase in Dubai - everyone drives like that." You may remember that I was knocked over by a car on a controlled pedestrian crossing a couple of weeks after I arrived in Dubai. I didn't drive here for the first six months because the roads were terrifying. I've gritted my teeth and got back behind the wheel and now "Madame" and I on the road every day. My theory is that due to outdated road signs, misleading road signs or complete lack of roadsigns, at any point in time, 50% of the drivers in Dubai are lost.

1. The first thing you learn here is that indicators have not been fitted on 95% of cars in Dubai and are an optional extra on the other 5%.
2. When you're in rush hour traffic probably already travelling over the speed limit and surrounded by other cars, a large 4x4 with blacked out windows comes up behind you, sits right on your tail, flashes the lights and stands on thee horn. From the driver's vantage point he can see there is a continuous line of traffic but he just keeps flashing his lights and getting even closer.
3. It is the responsibility of the person who is changing lanes to ensure that there is a safe gap for them to move into. (After driving in Dubai for a while the concept seems strange.) Its not the job of the people in the other lanes to make room! How many times do people start changing lanes without checking (and of course no indicator) and they only stop when they hear a horn blaring as they almost hit another car.
4. People who turn from the incorrect lane, and let's use as an example the numbat at DFC this morning. There were four lanes, two turning left (lanes 1 and 2), two lanes going straight ahead (3 and 4), I'm in the straight ahead lane 3, but when the lights go green the mental midget in lane 4 on my right hand side decides he wants to turns left cutting straight in front of me missing me by inches.
5. People who slam on the anchors when they see a speed camera then roar off only to slam on the anchors at the next camera.
6. Queue jumpers/push-inners; the Masters of the Universe who must get in line first. The guys who cruise down a line of waiting traffic looking for an "easy mark" to push in front of.
   
   The WHO report referred to in the article is here.

===================================

A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report has ranked roads in the UAE as some of the world's most dangerous.

Health chiefs have urged the UAE government to tighten motoring laws after the report showed that UAE road users are almost seven times more likely to be killed than those in Britain.

The study revealed that 37.1 people were killed on roads in the Emirates for every 100,000 people in 2007, the latest year for which UAE statistics are available, UAE daily The National reported on Tuesday.

Dr Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director general, said the poor safety record of the Emirates “deserves our highest attention” and called on officials to take action, the paper added.

Pedestrians constituted 28 percent of casualties and motorbike riders and cyclists making up another two percent, the report said.

The report said 86 percent of the 1,754,420 vehicles registered in the UAE in 2007 were motor cars, with trucks (seven percent), minibuses and vans (two percent) and buses (two percent) making up most of the remainder.

The police recorded 1,056 fatal and 11,155 non-fatal accidents in the same year with men making up 87 per cent of casualties and women 13 per cent.

The UAE is the worst performer in the region, with significantly more road deaths per head of population than Bahrain (12.1 per 100,000), Kuwait (16.9), Oman (21.3), Qatar (23.7), Saudi Arabia (29).

Getting from A to B in Dubai: It ain't easy.

It should have been simple; arrange for our IT man to drive an overseas visitor out to Jebel Ali for a meeting at the head office of a major US firm.

First snag, trying to find exactly where the company head office is located. Its not as easy as it sounds. Dubai has no system of street addresses so there is nothing like "#244, Najoom Street, Leyaltown, Dubai" or anything like that, locations are given in relation to local landmarks. Readers may remember I wrote about street directions given to me when I first arrived here "…its where the Oasis Centre used to be", which wasn't much help to me as a newcomer as the Oasis Centre had burnt down at least 12 months earlier.

There are numbered streets here, but the same street numbers are used in each of the communities (suburbs) in Dubai. If you live in, for example, 11A Street in Mirdiff, there is also an 11A Street in Satwa, Jumeirah, Al Quoz, Rashidiya and another 11A Street in each of the 100+ communities. No wonder the sharwama delivery guys get so confused. A recent arrival in our office was bemused when filling out a US form as he tried to squeeze "The villa with the orange door just past the second roundabout…." into the small box on the form allocated for his residential address. Its either that or expect overseas authorities to believe that everyone in Dubai lives at the Post Office - Dubai residents quickly get used to putting 'PO Box xxx' as their residential address.

Back to the task in hand. I found the Jebel Ali company's website but unfortunately no location map there. The simple answer seemed to be to phone the head office to ask for driving directions from, say, Ibn Battuta Mall. I thought to myself "Surely they'll be used to this type of call. They'll probably have a map they can fax or email to me." So, I made the call at 5:05pm, bearing in mind that in Dubai office hours are 8:30 - 6pm so the office would still be open.

The phone rang and rang and just as I was about to hang up, a voice answered and said something unintelligble. That was the best part of the conversation, from there it went downhill:

Is that XYZ Inc?
Yes Madam
Can you give me driving instructions to your office please. I have a visitor who has an appointment at your office tomorrow.
No, I'm sorry the office is now closed.
But they have to be at your office first thing tomorrow morning. I need to give them directions tonight or they'll be late for their meeting.
No I can't do that, the office is closed.
If the office is closed, then why are you answering the phone?
It's my duty.
Okay, can you just tell me the nearest exit number?
No I can't do that, you'll have to telephone the office tomorrow.
Why can't you tell me now? Is the office location moving overnight?
No.

And then there was complete silence except for the dying moans of my attempt at sarcasm. He hadn't hung up though, he was just waiting for my next move, it was a standoff. This man was not going to overstep the limits of his authority and dip his toe into the murky waters of customer service by giving me directions to the office he was currently standing in and presumably travelled to every day. No siree, that sort of stuff had to wait until the office reopened the following morning.

I admitted defeat and hung up, my brain addled. Eventually I contacted someone else at the head office, who helpfully sent me a faxed map showing the location of the site office of an unrelated construction company (?!?!)

The next morning the visitor set off with our office IT man at the wheel. After an hour of driving round and round Jebel Ali, they rang the head office (after opening time of course). They were given careful driving instructions which unfortunately proved to be wrong as the road described to them hasn't even been built yet!