Streets with Shells, Fast Drivers and Cheap Gas

Last week I received my official Kingdom of Saudi Arabia driver’s license. No driving test required… just lots of paperwork. The funny thing about obtaining a Saudi driver’s license is that there is no age requirement. So, it seems that a driver’s license is merely a formality. Because there is no minimum age for Saudi youth to drive, I have seen many boys that appear to be no more than 10 or 12 driving a car.

All of the main streets are very wide with landscaped medians, and the main streets and boulevards are also lined with the combination planters/lights in a concrete formed shell like in the photo. The planter’s lights are more decorative but serve for sidewalk illumination in the evening. I think they are very attractive and add character to the roads. It is a good thing that the streets are wide because drivers routinely speed, and their skills and driving habits are very poor giving drivers more margin for error. Red lights seem to mean slow down, but not always stop. Only half kidding, a friend said that being rear-ended at an intersection can be your fault for driving too slow.

I got a bicycle to get around for most routine daily excursions. There is a lengthy, winding bike/jogging trail through the largest park in town, but no designated bike lanes on the streets. It’s surprising that bikes are not more popular, given the year around climate without rain and no hills in the city. The only adults I see on bikes are construction or landscaping workers from the Philippines or India.

Not surprisingly, gas is cheap – the equivalent of 40 cents per gallon! A friend with a Chevy Tahoe SUV says it costs him a total of $8 to fill his gas tank when empty. The types of cars here are similar to the mix of US, European and Japanese you see at home. It occurred to me that if your Toyota accelerator were stuck here, it would probably go unnoticed - just a typical day on King Fahd Street.