Driving Miss Daisy

"you've got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere"....
"Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" by Billy Ocean. ..
"Little Red Corvette" by Prince. ...
"Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochran. ...
"On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson. ...
"Pink Cadillac" by Natalie Cole....

OR In honor of Ric Ocasek...

Ah, driving....Most of my adult life, driving was not a major focus in my everyday life.  From College in Durham to Fort Collins to Boothbay to Sugarloaf - I was able to make it through most of my days with minimal time thinking about driving and transportation. I generally enjoy driving when I have to do it, it was usually on my terms and not a daily drudgery. 

This all changed when I had to move back from France and began the commuter lifestyle in Massachusetts. One hour each way to and from work and traffic was a major focal point when you planned your weekend or activities. 

Well, here we are in Kuwait in a new situation for both off us. We live 25 kilometers from work, requiring a commute. We live in an apartment that is not near public transportation so we either walk or have to take a taxi everywhere, for anything and everything. Of all the changes that living in Kuwait brings with it, this has been one of the more difficult to acclimate to. 

BUS TO SCHOOL AND BACK

The school provides transportation to and from school. There are many teachers that do choose to buy cars and transport themselves. Everyone else takes the bus, or, if you miss the bus, pays 3KD($9) to get a taxi to school. The buses are mid-sized Toyota buses that have a capacity of 28, similar to the one shown below. 

There are multiple trips each morning and afternoon, you choose when you want to leave. There are big differences however if you choose to sleep in just a little. the bus times in the morning are 6:00(2 buses), 6:30 and 6:45(1 bus each). Brigitte and I are always on the 6:00 am bus. She likes to get to school early to get prepared for the day, and it makes for the fastest trip to school. From what we have heard, the 6:30/6:45 trip to school averages an hour for the 25 kilometers, as opposed to a 20-25 minute drive at 6:00. For the most part, the trips are without much fanfare, bunch of teachers, many barely awake, traveling while reading, listening to earbuds, etc. It gets interesting when the buses get totally full, especially in the afternoon on the way home. 

There are 3 buses home - 2 at 3:45, 1 at 4:45 and the last is 5:15. Everyone is, of course, hot and tired every afternoon. There is almost always some sort of traffic issue and it takes at least 45 minutes to get home most days. 

BARELY CONTROLLED CHAOS

Driving in Kuwait is like the wild wild west in many instances...

You have the Kuwaitis with big, fast cars and no etiquette. One taxi driver said that his greatest threat is the Kuwaiti drivers because they have no fear, no care about those around them, do not fear the police, and can replace their cars if anything were to happen to them.
They treat the breakdown lanes as their personal express lanes and will take any steps necessary to get ahead of traffic or cut directly to where they want to go.

This is a perfect example of the complete lack of organization, rules, courtesy, etc. This is a busy intersection right near our apartment. Essentially, we have to go this way to go most places ar you cannot turn left in Kuwait driving. The dark SUV in the pic was behind us, was not interested in waiting, so they drove up in the wrong lane as fas as they could and then will squeeze back into traffic. Notice the car on the right trying to cut across to go left. This type of thing happens all the time in our neighborhood that lacks proper roads, curbs, etc.  

Then you have Taxis with only slightly more driving skills and patience as their lively hood and license depends on their ability to stay on the road. That being said, plenty take risks that I would consider unnecessary making the hair stand up on your neck as you sit in the back seat and hold on tight!


BUSES, BUSES, BUSES

These white buses are everywhere in our area. Basically, our neighborhood is dominated by expat workers that supply cheap labor to the oil production here in Kuwait. They are transported by these white buses to and from their living area.

In the video below, this shows the crazy entry to a 2 lane side road that we have to take every day. People zoom left and right and after the turn, watch on the right all the Huge white buses picking up and dropping off the migrant workers...

If you have read this far, I leave you with some dashcam video from the other day. There is one driver who is particularly aggressive and on this day, I came home on the last bus, it was nearly empty so I set up my 360 video camera and filmed the trip home. This piece is the section from the highway almost to our apartment, maybe 2 kilometers. It gives you a very good sense of what I have been writing about above...there are some narration titles added along the way. 

No driving today, home all day doing chores, working for school and getting ready for tomorrow morning's bus - 6:00am sharp...