Driving to School Today

Anyone who lives in Doha, or who has even visited Doha will tell you that driving can be an absolute nightmare. There are road rules, though mostly everyone ignores them. In my short time here I have seen some of the more outrageous and stupid driving then anywhere else I have been before and I have been a fair few places where driving can be an adventure. I am thinking mostly of the time I have spent in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Rome! Doha takes the cake when is comes to bad driving.

My personal favourite is when there are 2 clearly and well defined marked lanes and suddenly someone pushes through the middle to make a two lane road a three lane road. I have started to take up us much space as possible at one roundabout where this happens all the time to prevent it happening to me. Needless to say the person trying to push through honks a few times, but I ignore them.

Today I think I have seen the worst. My eldest son attends a school that is out on the edge of Doha. It takes us anywhere from 40-60 minutes in the morning traffic to get there. The second to last road that we drive on is one lane in each direction. It is perfectly straight and has a couple of speed humps to try and keep speed low. All of a sudden there in the road is a tent, a huge marque. It has been set up on someone's property to host a party or a wedding or something like that and it is obviously going to be a big party. But instead of setting up the tent in a spare bit of desert (like the rest do and there is no shortage of it), they set up the tent on their property but the tent is to big for their property and it extends to cover the entire two lanes of the road. That's right you did indeed just read 'covers the entire two lanes of the road'. Not a small part or half of the road but the whole darn road.

click on the photos to get a better view

To add to my horror at outrage at this is the fact that there have been no signs, or warnings or any redirection set up at all. There is enough space for one car to squeeze between the edge of the tent and two lorry (truck) cabs which had been left in the desert next to the road. This road is very busy in the morning, there are something like seven schools that are accessed by this road. We also have no idea how long it will be like this because of the lack of signage. I was so horrified by this tent this morning that when I went back this afternoon to collect my son I took pictures. Enjoy the craziness that is driving in Doha.