Sharon and Jacques’ Excellent Blog

Driving in the Middle East is an unexpected panic attack waiting to happen.  No matter how cosmopolitan thcity is, the driving habits from the rest of the world have converged into one huge mess.

There are roundabouts which are ignored, stop signs which are ignored, and u-turns which are made with great abandon.  My friend in Kuwait send me some driving info which basically sums up the insanity here:

• She who hath momentum hath right of way
• In a traffic jam tangle, she who hath her nose in front can proceed without attention to her merging neighbours, for it is they who must worry about scratching her.
• Two lanes doth often unexpectedly merge into one on slip roads leading into motorways, or at busy intersections when thou shall be concentrating on other things, like the traffic lights.
• Lane position shall be a matter of thy personal preference.  Turns shall be made from up to three lanes out from thy designated turn lane, regardless of intervening traffic.  The faster thou goest and the closer thou art to the turn off, the better.
• Yea, though there be continuous traffic in all other lanes, the car behind shall try to crawl up thy exhaust pipe and flash his lights at thou.  He shall pass thou in the emergency lane, or via an impossibly small gap on thy inside; or attempt to go over thy roof, even though he hath nowhere to go after that.
• When traffic streams doth merge, the other driver shall merge in front of thou, and never behind
• Cab drivers do not understand addresses numbers. Everything has to be given relative to landmarks despite the fact they all have GPS equipped taxis
• There is also weird lingo here like slip road which is a road beside a road. 
• Waste lot which we would refer to as a vacant lot.
• The good thing is whereever you are headed, if you arrive late to the appointment you can blame traffic and every nods in sympathy.