Driving in the U.A.E.

Driving in Abu Dhabi can be described in many ways but if I only had one word, it would be insane!!  I have been driving for almost two months here, although not everyday.  Some days I drive Barry to work and then I have the car for the day.  For now it's working out fine sharing one car.  On days Barry needs the car I just taxi it.  When I drive or when I don't just observing how ninety percent of the other drivers operate is cheap entertainment!

Since this is my blog I get more than one word, so I will describe the insanity.  Every car, at least eighty percent of them, have one main objective.  That is to get in front of the car that is in front of them!  For example; in the U.S. when one stops at a red light they should leave some distance between them and the car in front of them.  But not in the U.A.E.  If you leave any room, and I mean ANY, the car behind you will pull around you and stick it's nose in front of you!  If they can't get around then the car beside you will stick it's nose in that space because they are now inches farther down the road.  Now when you are stopped this is one thing but when all this insanity is happening at twenty, thirty, and more miles per hour it's plain crazy.  I never thought I would say it's actually safer to tailgate!

Now when the traffic is not heavy, the insane weaving from one lane to another is manageable.  I have seen cars going perpendicular to traffic just to get to a different spot!  It's amazing when one is not driving to look down the road ahead and see so many cars weaving in and out, often at decent speeds, no turn signals and not crashing into one another.  Rush hour turns this insanity up several notches.

Traffic is lighter in the summer when so many Expats leave for a break from the heat.  It picks up in September when they come back from "Holiday" and school is back in.  With Ramadan (more about this in a future blog) in September this month and all Muslims leaving work each day several hours early certain sections of the city turn into grid lock and the insanity takes over.  Every driver simply wants ahead of the one in front of him, like that will somehow get him home quicker.  My favorite moment driving so far happened at this time of day during the first week of September.

Suzy (Barry's co-worker's wife) was driving me home after lunch out with some ladies.  We were heading down 11th street, also called Haza A Bin Zayed Street, but referred to by everyone as Defense Street.  Maybe that's one reason the driver's are crazy, they probably don't even know what road they are driving on!  Defense St. is eight lanes with four going in each directions.  The back street (it has no name) our apartment is on runs parallel to 11th, it is two lanes, one in each direction.  We just had to make a right, go two short blocks, make a left and then not far down that road and my apartment is on the left.  From Defense St. when you turn is less than five minutes.  It took us ten minutes to go the two short blocks and then we went to make our left turn into grid lock.  Five lanes of cars were heading in our direction!  In the shoulder, the sidewalk, anywhere a car could get around the car in front of them they did and now there was nowhere for us to go!  It took almost twenty minutes to go two car lengths into the oncoming traffic and make a right handed turn.  We then went around a few blocks to get to our apartment.  Suzy hung out with me playing cards a few hours till the traffic broke!  

I would be amiss if I didn't mention the honking.  This is what insures the level of insanity is at the highest!  There is the light tap of the horn all about the city and signifies multiple meanings, but usually cab drivers looking for fares from pedestrians or drivers just making you aware they are next to you.  The louder horn is usually; "hey you cut me off" or "speed up".  The second the light turns green you will here multiple honks signifying cars to "get moving"!  Turning high traffic times the honk gets louder to "get moving", the catch is they don't care if you have traffic in front of you and CAN'T move!  The longer traffic sits the louder and longer they honk.  They are completely clueless that it doesn't help!

So this is driving in Abu Dhabi!  You just go with the flow, laugh at the craziness, and ask the Lord to surround you with protection every time you are behind the wheel or in a vehicle!  It's good to know He goes before me.