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Hey the UAE is not alone when it comes to putting speed bumps and no sign markers in the middle of a trans-country highway... Dunno if that makes me feel better though when I go over the speed bumps doing 120kph

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp ... categ_id=1

This article (attached), claims that the UAE has orderly roads....

I've been to Lebanon of course and driving there blows chunks, but to say that the UAE is orderly is comparison is extreme!!!

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If none of this makes sense to you, then you have never been on a road in Lebanon. I have tried for nearly two years now to make some sense out of the maze of barriers, blocks, and speed bumps which seem to exist as half-hearted attempts to keep Lebanon's ridiculously aggressive drivers from killing themselves. Add to this a random system of markers and confusing signs (often in one but rarely in all of the following languages - Arabic, French, and English) with contradictory messages, and there exists a recipe for trouble on all of Lebanon's motorways. Of course, nobody reads the signs anyway - especially the one that says "Stop." Drivers here seem to prefer to put their faith in Allah himself and just barrel blindly into intersections and hope for the best; either that or they think their status will protect them from oncoming trucks and wannabe rally drivers racing with each other. My best guess is that Lebanon has erected its myriad driving obstacles because someone gave the government here the money to do it (like maybe the United Arab Emirates, which has incredibly orderly traffic and is generous to a fault when it comes to helping out its poor confused cousin Lebanon), and the government has to pretend (at least) that the money is being used for traffic purposes.

For the most part, defensive driving here seems to involve invoking a fundamental sense of fear of blind intersections and approaches and what potentially lurks behind them. Assuming that someone or something sits behind every blind approach or obstacle (including even parked cars and innocent-looking trash cans) will go a long way toward enabling you to last one more day on the roads of Lebanon, but even this is no guarantee. Also, one must normally assume that nobody on the roadway understands common rules regarding right-of-way, as few people seem to think that it's their responsibility to stop or even pause when turning into traffic. Also, I have rarely seen anyone pay attention to those curious white lines drawn on the pavement that, in most countries, indicate lanes between which you are required to position your car as you navigate the roadway. Many people here seem to think that you are required to center your car ON the line and follow it, like those old toy slot car racing tracks of decades past, as if the white line will take you to your destination. As far as passing and overtaking, this activity is usually accomplished in as chaotic a manner as possible, complete with maximum weaving action, and then braking suddenly upon realizing that one has run into the one constant that exists here on the Lebanese roadway, the single rule that always holds true no matter where you are in this country - the checkpoint.

The point? The traffic situation here sits at a curious junction at which public necessity meets the vanity of the so-called important people, and it seems that far too many people here think they are important enough to drive without proper qualifications and without following even the most simple and fundamental rules of driving safety. The government, for all its determination to fix the problem while stepping on as few important toes as possible, sees to it that various quick-fixes and band-aids are applied to the problem in as judicious a manner as deemed necessary under the circumstances that exist at the precise moment in time. We westerners call this jury-rigging. Obviously, what makes Lebanese roads dangerous are the drivers themselves: they simply have no idea how to drive. Whether it's because of the effects of the war or because they suffer from bad role models on the road is irrelevant. The result, whatever the cause, is a hazardous situation made worse by the government's inability to assess the situation properly or to deal with it with any kind of efficacy beyond putting up more signs, roadblocks, barriers, or speed bumps. Until the state acts more responsibly, including holding traffic offenders' feet to the fire when they drive like angry Frenchmen, it will continue to convince people that it is indeed the enemy.

I dunno about you, but that sounds like Dubai...

Of course, in Dubai we are a city in a country of *cough* orderly roads...