wobblyoldgeezer

I KNOW a lot of expatriates who refuse to drive in Bahrain because the standard of driving is so poor and they have no desire to become yet another traffic department statistic.

Surrounded by two tonnes of metal, bumpers, bull bars and various seat belts and airbags, they do not feel safe on Bahrain's roads.

During my stay in various cities in the UK I could go months without seeing the slightest "fender bender" on my way to work.

Here in Bahrain I usually see at least one a day, in what is comparatively a sparsely populated country.

In an hour of driving every day I see dozens of reckless manoeuvres and near misses that if slightly mistimed would result in horrendous pile-ups, and I refuse to believe that they get away with it because they are such good drivers.

I have seen people drive straight into the rear of another car without even braking, as if they expected the car in front to just disappear. I have seen them mount the kerb at high speed to overtake someone.

I have seen a car full of youngsters drive into the rear wheel of a motorcyclist, knocking him off his bike and laughing about it. I have seen cars reverse into people, street lamps, cars and bicycles. I have seen drivers aim for people and animals.

I once swerved to miss a car who was coming towards me, he then followed me and threw coins at my car before explaining his actions with the usual "I am a Bahraini..."

The point of all this is this. With the roads of Bahrain like this, why on earth would anyone want to ride a bicycle for pleasure?

They are surely tempting fate, and cannot be amongst the sharpest knives in the drawer

Any thoughts?

t4mv

Wobbly, 'sounds like you should accelerate those retirement plans and bail ASAP.

What did you ever decide to do, btw? (about retirement)

cyclinfool

OK - that's one country that's off my travel list

wobblyoldgeezer

Took the money. I re-upped!

wobblyoldgeezer

Yes indeed, but this one made me think

I know biking is vulnerable. So do we all.

My immediate reaction to this letter to the newspaper was 'learn to anticipate, sure there are plenty of bad drivers but the skill is to see them coming, and by the way, why project your driving fear onto cyclists?'

And then a good cycling friend of mine was driven into from behind, on a highway when he was on the shoulder barred to cars, by a young lady who was doing her homework on a laptop. She was his student.

He's in intensive care. She's pursuing him for damage to her car.

I'm about done here

t4mv

You must really enjoy living on the edge.

If you're in oil, there's a little leak off the coast of the 'States that's probably a little safer to work on than riding your bike in Bahrain.

The Weak Link

Inshallah.

billydonn

Amen to that!