How to prank your mom....
- Thread starter Zeldman
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Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Light and Sporty Guy
Fake. The woman is wearing a seat belt. That isn't done in the middle east.
SoonerAviator
Final Approach
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Lol, I buckled up every time I was in an Uber in the UAE/Saudi. Those people drive like maniacs in the UAE because half the people there are from countries with different driving styles/regulations.
Spring Ford
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I have heard that the issue is that they are convinced that they will crash when God decrees it and that no action of theirs, a mere mortal, can make any difference. They take no responsibility for their own safety.
SoonerAviator
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Well, I suppose that could be possible. Hopefully that's true and they are all appealing to the same God, lol. Most of the Uber/cab drivers are from Pakistan and India, while the majority of the daily traffic are mostly from the UK. Throw in a bunch of Filipinos which work a lot of the hotel/restaurant service jobs and you get a melting pot of driving styles. Then the guys from Oman/Saudi get tossed in the mix and have little regard for any of the traffic rules, but you can usually spot them because they drive the most luxurious SUVs or exotic sports cars.
MuseChaser
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Best part was the guy's parting greeting at the end... "Peace from the Middle East!"
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
Almost reminds me of my visit to Cairo, though there's a lot less traffic in the video.
Sac Arrow
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Snorting his way across the USA
I think it was faked. Knowing them, probably RPG graphics.
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Aztec Flyer
There's a bit of all of the above going on over there in that region. I was resident in Bahrain for 8 years. The main island of Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia with a long causeway, and the Saudis would drive over, especially on the weekends, for the booze and the other "entertainment".
When I first moved to Bahrain it was illegal for the nationals in Saudi Arabia to have car insurance...something about questioning the "will of Allah". And many of the Saudis drove as though they believed in that (and probably did). In Bahrain it was mandatory to have car insurance, even if you were coming over the causeway from KSA. Made for interesting times for the mostly Pakistani road police, whom the Saudis completely ignored.
One of the funniest things was to watch a large black Mercedes or an even larger white Lexus SUV on a major highway, heading towards a fog bank, turn on their 4-way flashers, as though that was going to protect them. Slow down? Not a chance. And the Bahrain ordinances did not allow moving the vehicles even after a minor collision until the road police arrived. I'd be trying to get around one of these blockages in my Land Cruiser and I'd notice that if the drivers were both Arab males they would be holding a "family reunion" type of conversation, smiling and laughing, and nobody upset with the other while they waited for the police.
When I first moved there Bahrain averaged ~100 collisions a day and 1 or 2 road fatalities on average every week - on an island of 700,000 people, about 1/3 of whom were expatriates. An extraordinary number of the fatalities were single vehicle high speed loss of control where the expensive European sedan or sports car was completely demolished.
Cairo (and other cities like it such as New Delhi) is a bit different. The major project I put together while living in Bahrain was in Egypt and I spent a LOT of time in Cairo. Central Cairo is so congested the collisions are generally minor and nobody gets hurt. You also notice amid the incessant honking horns and taxi drivers daring each other as they converge at an intersection, there's actually a set of unwritten rules everyone follows to keep the traffic moving, however slowly. In the Persian Gulf there is no such thing. The place is laced with high speed divided highways, multi-lane roundabouts and overpasses, and the number of high speed accidents and fatalities is ridiculous. The only rule that applies is whomever has the larger, more expensive vehicle has the right of way.
One of my favourite stories from Egypt was travelling in a taxi and arriving at a railway crossing just as the barriers were coming down. Everybody stopped in their lane, as expected. But as soon as the train arrived, and the view across from the opposite side of the track was blocked, cars from further back starting pulling out into the oncoming lane and driving right up to the track edge. I learned you can fit 6 to 7 Egyptian taxis across a 2 lane road width if you make good use of the shoulders. Needless to say as soon as the train had passed all the vehicles facing each other from either side, completely blocking the entire road width, started the obligatory blaring of horns and jockeying for position across the only available open space - on the tracks. I got the impression for the drivers they are engaging in a daily sport just for the fun of it.