Another Driving Rant

I unfortunately agree with you.  The driving has become worse over the last several months - there is just a general disregard for others in the way people drive here.  I had this discussion with my wife the other day and the consensus was that besides very little law enforcement, the problem is that you have so many different driving styles because of the diversity that exists in Bahrain.

And due to this, we reckon that the driving is so bad because people drive like they would in their home countries.  I have learnt to drive for others, and to try think for them so that I know what to do.  Defensive driving is definitely not the best kind

Dear Satkan,

Totally agree with all your above points, even i have faced several dangerous situations.

But when driving i have noticed that we loose our cool very quickly when someone pulls over to your lane without an indicator or just zoom pasts you from the wrong side, i guess we should give way to such people and try to cool ourselves down and let it just go, i know it may sound crazy but i feel this is the best thing to do. Imagine you loose your cool when heading to office or with family and (god forbid) if  someone crashes into you we are the ones to suffer.

This is just my point of view!

T&R
Arjun

I regularly tell myself to let it go and not let it upset me. While that works somewhat for some things (i.e. a conceded person that thinks they don't have to wait in a line of traffic), it doesn't work for others. When travelling at 100 kph and someone going a lot faster swerves in and out of lanes widely and/or cuts into your lane causing you to have to slam on your brakes, then just letting it go is wrong. Likewise, when a person with clearly no clue of the world around them and no ability to maneuver a vehicle wanders the road aimlessly you can't just shrug it off. These people are putting everyone else's lives in danger. Enough people need to get mad about it all and not just let it go. Maybe then something can be done to change it?

Also, people driving like they do in their home country is not unique to Bahrain. Nor is it acceptable. Everyone needs to drive to one standard (preferably a high one!). But this has always been the case too. So if driving is indeed getting worse and/or more dangerous now, then why? Perhaps it is because everyone is getting tired of the offenders and people are taking the "when in Rome" approach, thus propagating the problem more?

Education isn't going to work to solve this in my opinion. It seems to me like the only way is through law enforcement. But it doesn't seem like that is going to happen anytime soon either.

I am not sure it is any worse than it was when I arrived 2.5 years ago but I think my tolerance of it is much less.  It is just not acceptable.  I also daily see such dangerous driving.  In the UK we have a television programme which shocks people by insane things the police see on the roads - seriously it is nothing in comparison to what you see in Bahrain.

I am not sure what the answer is.  In a country/society where unfortunately, it is not what you do but who you know that decides whether you will be punished or not I am not sure even enforcement of the laws will work.  Most of the awful driving you see is sheer arrogance and I am sad to say that I see many westerners driving so appallingly it makes me ashamed.

Maybe the new proposed law of banning those of us expats who do not need to drive for work will be the answer.....

wjwoodward wrote:

To paraphrase Antonio Bandeiras' line from the movie "The Body"......

Well then, all you have to do is give them faster cars, and wait for the inevitable!

If these bad drivers want to kill eachother off so badly, everybody should facilitate it.

Stupid advice from an expert - they won't kill each other, they will kill innocent families, run over school kids and endanger lives in general. The main reason for the bad driving is ignorance, arrogance and the fact that the driving instructors play Candy Crush on their mobiles rather than teach!!

Jo is spot on. They don't kill or injure each other. The victims are innocent people.

Tracy is right too. While there are certain groups that have a higher percentage of bad drivers, they come from all walks of life. I think the westerners at fault are either ones that learned to drive here or ones that adopted the "when in Rome" attitude I mentioned earlier.

Instead of limiting expats that don't need to drive for work, why not do something that makes sense? For example, have a real test of knowledge and skill to get a license, enforce existing laws, stripe repeat offenders of their licenses, etc.

I think the issue really is that those in power don't care either.  If they did, they would do something about it

I'm trying to tell myself to let the small things go, but it is hard!
On my way home I sat at a traffic light. 3 lanes - 2 turning left and the rightmost lane a dead-end due to road blockages. In other words, only 2 lanes were usable and both turned left.
There were only two cars in the left 2 lanes and then me behind one of them (just 3 of us in total at the light). A guy in a car with KSA plates came up behind me and missed hitting me by about cm as he went into the right lane. The lane went no where so it was clear he was going to cut us off. I was prepared for that. However, he went a step further. He cut us all off and from the right lane he made a U-turn across two lanes of traffic!!!

What goes through someone's mind when they do this? A U-turn is to be made from the left-most lane. There was only one car there too. I can't understand what twisted mind would choose to go to the right lane and make a U-turn across two lanes of traffic.

this kind of scenario is very common in juffair, so when u see a KSA number plate slow down let them drive how they want ... save yourself!

Not all KSA plates are Saudi drivers though. Most KSA companies give their expat staff KSA cars. The drivers can be British, American etc. The driving still drives me crazy but there is nothing we can do about it. The situation is discussed daily but to no avail. We need our government to follow Dubai - build better roads and put laws in place that are actually implemented.
Driving instructors are dire - they should all be sacked.

GDN Today - another load of rubbish to try and shut us up GDN News

As vet :

My advices are for drivers to :

1- avoide going out on the weekends expet early morning , because of visitors coming from the causeway.

2- Rush hours 2 to 3 pm,Ramadan 6-7 pm .

3- always report the reckless drivers to the traffic police 999 they very helpful ( I called them many times to report speedy drivers )