This was the title of an article in the Saudi Gazette a while back. This is truly evident in how they drive here. I thought the driving in Moscow was bad. In Moscow the infrastructure is no way able to keep up, so it was almost always congested. Accidents were usually fender benders or scrapes. People were always in a hurry and if you left to much space between your car and the one in front of you, someone would pull in and fill that space. They didn't do it to cut you off, just further their progression down the road. I would take hours to go only a few miles, but you were pretty safe.
Okay back to Jeddah and the piss poor driving here. Here they drive so carelessly it will drive you nuts. I find myself getting angrier and angrier each time I drive. And, I don't think I'm the only one. Last week when I was leaving work, I pulled out onto the main road, 3 lanes on my side, and in my rear view mirror I see this silver car in the middle lane ramming the car on the right, then he decided to go for the vehicle in the left lane a couple of times, then the back to the right. At that point, I was too far away to see how it ended. Granted that was one of the more extreme examples.
More of an every day occurrence is the drift lane change. Just imagine someone wearing a Keffiyeh, ( the checkered head scarf that the men wear) and driving a car. The keffiyeh comes forward so much that the wearer has zero peripheral vision and do not bother to turn their head and look over their shoulder. To change lanes the don't signal they just start to ease over the line and gradually get over. They believe that the space will open up so they just do glide on over. Now this in itself is mind boggling but a great many driver don't drive between the lines, they ride down the road with one side just over the line taking up two lanes. When I encounter this I do what any sane person would do, I lean on the horn as I move by them and encourage them to get back into their lane, all the time muttering explicatives under my breath.
So I stumbled upon a youtube video of one of these drivers, they display a lot of habits we see here. Based on the number of drivers, this looks to be filmed on a Friday morning so about a third of the traffic. It's about 17 minutes long but the first few minutes you can see how he drives on the lines.
Okay now that I've got that off my chest, things here are going well. The temperature is getting warmer and the humidity is climbing as well. Work is going good, and I've been getting in some diving whenever I can.
I know it's been a while since the last posting, but I don't want to bore you with the day to day things that don't change.
Cheers!
Okay back to Jeddah and the piss poor driving here. Here they drive so carelessly it will drive you nuts. I find myself getting angrier and angrier each time I drive. And, I don't think I'm the only one. Last week when I was leaving work, I pulled out onto the main road, 3 lanes on my side, and in my rear view mirror I see this silver car in the middle lane ramming the car on the right, then he decided to go for the vehicle in the left lane a couple of times, then the back to the right. At that point, I was too far away to see how it ended. Granted that was one of the more extreme examples.
More of an every day occurrence is the drift lane change. Just imagine someone wearing a Keffiyeh, ( the checkered head scarf that the men wear) and driving a car. The keffiyeh comes forward so much that the wearer has zero peripheral vision and do not bother to turn their head and look over their shoulder. To change lanes the don't signal they just start to ease over the line and gradually get over. They believe that the space will open up so they just do glide on over. Now this in itself is mind boggling but a great many driver don't drive between the lines, they ride down the road with one side just over the line taking up two lanes. When I encounter this I do what any sane person would do, I lean on the horn as I move by them and encourage them to get back into their lane, all the time muttering explicatives under my breath.
So I stumbled upon a youtube video of one of these drivers, they display a lot of habits we see here. Based on the number of drivers, this looks to be filmed on a Friday morning so about a third of the traffic. It's about 17 minutes long but the first few minutes you can see how he drives on the lines.
Okay now that I've got that off my chest, things here are going well. The temperature is getting warmer and the humidity is climbing as well. Work is going good, and I've been getting in some diving whenever I can.
I know it's been a while since the last posting, but I don't want to bore you with the day to day things that don't change.
Cheers!
