Driving in Doha

The process of obtaining a driver's license in Doha is insane. It requires multiple pieces of paperwork all done in Arabic that you have no control over. You also need an eye test before you even show up. Once you do arrive at the driving centre you need to go into a room and take a number. When they call you, you go up to the counter and pay your money. Here is how it went: The lady speaks no English but tells me to sit down after I pay. I sit for about 10 minutes before asking somebody else where I should be. They tell me the other building and tell me to hurry. So I walk into the other building and I push on the door as it seems wedged shut. I soon learned that it actually is a bunch of men behind the door. The room is the size of your typical living room, and has about 140 people in it.  I wedge in, look around, and try to find a number.  After looking lost for a bit longer a man stands up and yells at everyone crowding the desk. They back up. He sees me and waves me forward. I hand in my paper work and with no further instructions, find a place to sit down. There are seats for 6 across but people are 12 wide.  We wait.

After a while a man will come out and call a few names. Everyone rushes forward and it makes it impossible to hear what he is saying. This process repeats every 20 minutes with 5 lucky people going into the room, never to appear again. At the end of a couple hours my name was called and I was taken into the testing room. This is where I sat down in front of a computer and took my 20 question multiple choice test. The test was a total joke. It would show a picture and ask a question. Sometimes the question was read to you other times not. The answers often didn't make sense. For example, once I was asked quote what is this “Road feature?” and was given a picture. In the picture was a marking on the road, a sign above the road, a sign to the left and to the right, signs above the road… there must have been 15 signs. I read the answers and only one of them fit for any of the signs. 

The first four questions of my test were yield or give away. That means 4 out of 20 of my questions were about the yield sign. Sometimes when you click on an answer they will read it to you other times they will just say one word like give. It took me less than 3 minutes to answer the test and I got 20 out of 20. However when you leave the room they don't tell you anything and you end up wondering what to do next. A man walks into the room with his hands in the air and said “that's it, no more tests.” It is over for today about 50 people did not finish their test or get to take it. I was told to wait outside the door for two minutes. Ten minutes later I'm walking between buildings asking for more help. An hour later I am finally called and my paperwork return to me.

Then you go inside the first building, grab another number, and register for your next test, the road test. This is a couple of weeks after the theoretical test. On that day you show up at 5:30 in the morning. You pay your money to use their car. 200 riyals or about 60 dollars just for the privilege of driving in their car. Then you were told to sit down and they will call you at about 7:30. Around 8:10 I was finally called and walked out with 3 people into a car. A stone faced police officer gets in the car and barks instructions at the first driver, “turn left and right” but they are in Arabic. One by one we go through the process. I get into the front seat and immediately the cop starts texting. The radio is blaring. I make a few turns and drive us back to the driving school. Not a word is said. I returned inside and wait another hour. Rather than process people as they finish, everyone waits until the end and it is all done at once.

We heard horror stories about this process from other schools and other people. Sometimes the instructor would tell people to speed up or do something that was wrong to see if they could trick them into breaking the law and then they would fail them. When some people finish their test the person just says, “Fail.” Or they would stop the car and open up the engine and point to a random item inside the car and say what is this? If you could answer, you pass. If you can’t, you fail.  A man with a stack of papers will walk outside and everyone will rush after him gathering around. He will read named after name and show them that they failed right in front of everyone else. If your name isn't called, you assume that you pass and you wait again until they call you. Many people are in the driving school for the fourth and fifth time to try to pass their test. It is no wonder there are such crazy drivers on the road here.

I passed, 8 hours and 500 Riyals later.  Good thing I didn’t have to take it again.