You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

ON DRIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA

GAMING THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS

I lived in Saudi Arabia through much of the 1980s and survived Saudi Drivers who have taken the art of gaming traffic lights to an extreme. There seemed to be a sense of power for these drivers when they could time the traffic lights precisely. There are several examples of this. Of course, there were those drivers who would accelerate when he was approaching a changing light. (at that time the drivers were all men.) This stunt is seen across the globe but in the Kingdom, it was so prevalent that I , like other drivers, would expect it, and pause before starting to move on a change to green.

I was told of one Saudi driver who tried to beat a yellow but actually ran a red. He misjudged the change so badly that a truck, carrying new cars, had started across the intersection when his light turned green. The truck driver, seeing the speeding car approaching from his right, slammed on his brakes. The truck’s brakes stopped the truck but not the unsecured car being transported on the rack over the truck’s cab. The car continued rolling forward falling from the truck and crushing the red light runner. Allah has his ways to punish wrongdoers.

It seemed that some drivers in Arabia found gaming the lights gave them a sense of superiority over the other drivers. Knowing exactly how long it would take for a red light to turn green, resulted in several driving behaviors which were irritating, and dangerous but still impressive. One common, and irritating, habit was that the drivers of cars, which were often way back in the line, would aggressively honk their horns the instant the light would change to green. Some of these honkers would begin even before the light had turned green.

Another light-timing stunt was done only to irritate the drivers in cars stopped behind the gamer. In this case, the gamer would stop at a red light. He would then jump out of his car and do something to it like wash the windshield. Then, at precisely the moment when the car ahead of him would start to move, he would climb back behind the wheel and drive on. This game only had the desired effect, to piss off the drivers of cars behind him, when there was a line of cars in the other lane blocking a diversionary maneuver by the drivers stuck behind the gamer. This game seems to provide the stuntman with a bit of one-upmanship. A gotcha moment over the other drivers. This sense of victory was accentuated by a wave and a smile to the cars behind him as the gamer jumped back into his car to drive away.

By far the most daring feat of light timing was seen when a driver would use the right turn lane, or even the shoulder, to pass a line of cars waiting at a red light. These cheaters had the timing down so precisely that they would reach the front of the line of waiting cars just as the light turned green. Without slowing, they would dart out in front of the waiting cars. This is, of course, dangerous, considering the frequency with which drivers would speed up to make it through the yellow light.

I saw this stunt performed successfully many times. However one afternoon I witnessed a dramatic exception. It happened as I was stopped at a light on the Corneesh of Al Khobar. A corneesh is a four-lane avenue, all aspiring towns have one, with a linear park dividing the two lanes of traffic going in opposite directions. These parks were often wide enough to accommodate landscaping, palm trees, and even a paved path down the middle.

On this occasion, I was the second in a long line of cars stopped at a red light. In my right rear-view mirror my attention was drawn to a sedan speeding up the empty right turn lane. I then noticed another driver doing the same thing on the opposite side of the Corneesh. He was in the far right turn lane and approaching the intersection at a high rate of speed. Only this driver was not rushing to get ahead of the other cars to continue straight up the Corneesh. He was pulling an even more brash stunt. He was turning left from the right turn lane on the far side of this broad avenue and rushing past four lanes of cars waiting in both directions. A left turn lane was provided but this guy didn’t want to wait while the intersection was cleared in order to turn up the side street.

The sedan passing on my right was focused on getting ahead of the cars stopped at the red light with me. He did not see, or could not avoid the speeding car coming from his left side. The two cars were going more than 40 mph when they crashed. The force of the collision propelled them into the air, spinning together, in a remarkably graceful two-car pirouette, before crashing in a heap on the pavement. Upon witnessing this deadly crash, those drivers in the cars waiting for the green light were probably feeling as I did, that Allah provides justice. None were willing to risk an encounter with the police, by stopping to assist. We all drove through the littered intersection, past the smoldering wreckage, and proceeded up the Corneesh to attend to the mundane tasks of the afternoon.