Qatari Road Info

A colleague at the office asked me this week if I was interested in purchasing a vehicle here in Doha for the duration of my stay.  I told him not at this time, feeling somewhat daunted by the thought of driving (and more to the point, PARKING), here in the city.  The drivers drive as fast as possible and regard all traffic rules, regulations, signage, and lane markers as my colleague Steve puts it, "just a recommendation", not really law.  More on the parking situation later.

I questioned him further about how one goes about purchasing a vehicle, more from curiosity, than practical interest, being that I really enjoy the private driver dropping me off in front of my destination and collecting me at the end to whisk me back home. 

He told me that it is very easy and inexpensive to purchase a vehicle, however, difficult to get it re-licensed after the first year.  Every vehicle comes with insurance and a license plate (you pay for both of these when you purchase the vehicle).  Annually, when the license needs to be renewed, the car must be inspected.  It will not pass if there is a scratch in the paint, headlight not working, radio doesn't work, if it is too dirty, etc.  To get anything on the car repaired, you must have a police report, even if it is a door ding.   This explains A LOT - first of all, there is so much dust in the air, the cars get dirty, but you rarely see a dirty vehicle.  They keep the cars pristine here, even on the really dusty job site.  I think they wash them every night.  Also, people seem to purchase new cars all the time instead of getting the license renewed.  I don't know where they are putting all the extra cast-offs....

One of my new American female friends was telling the story of getting her driver's license here.  There is only one day a week which a woman can apply for her driver's license.  The first week, one takes an eye exam.  If one passed the eye exam, then she is able to return the next week to take a written exam (which mainly covers what different road signs mean).  If one passed that exam, then the third week, she arrives at the Testing Agency at 6:00am, boards a bus with 40 other women, and waits her turn. They have one car that is used to test all of these women.  The bus proceeds to follow the test car around the city while, one-by-one, they test each person on driving.  This process apparently takes the better part of 6 hours to complete.  One doesn't know if you pass or not until your bus returns to the Testing Agency and they announce those who can get their licenses.   

I think this process is used as a deterrent for women driving.  On a side note:  I don't know how the Qatari women drive when they are fully veiled - it has to impede peripheral vision for sure.

On my walk this morning to the Costa Coffee down the street, I observed the following:

No Kidding - Deep Wall and Floor Opening?
Notice that there are no barricades, safety tape or anything
 surrounding this AND the sign was across the street on the sidewalk.

There is a funny Civil thing here - when a building is built, there is this void area of dirt/sand between the property line and the government maintained street/sidewalk like below - no one seems to want to fill the gap between the two.  This is everywhere - sometimes it is only a few feet, sometimes larger like this photo.



Sidewalk                                Void Area   Property Line



Also - instead of parking in the void area, most cars park on the pedestrian
 sidewalk - probably so the car doesn't get dirty?

I like this sign...near my hotel:

 YIELD.  Just a recommendation.....