Does anyone else hate those flashing amber traffic lights in Qatar?
If you are not in Qatar, a quick background would be handy.
Qatar used to have lots of roundabouts.
On the advice of British traffic police (who could see that many drivers in Qatar either did not know the rules of roundabouts or know them and ignored them) the government has been slowly pulling up the roundabouts and replacing them with traffic lights.
Where the roundabouts remain, they are being equipped with traffic lights.
But on some traffic lights, they have a special flashing amber lights which remains of for several minutes. This allows you to go if there is a car coming.
But they can change at any second.
This leaves you with the horrible situation of trying to watch the amber lights while at the same time as watching the traffic coming from your left. A situation which involves a lot of head whipping.
Of course, miss a second's opportunity and you will be deafened by a cacaphony of horns.
Go after a red light and you could face a QAR6000 fine - and points on your licence.
(The best way to deal with this is to get a passenger to watch the lights while you watch the oncoming traffic. But it only works if you have a passenger!)
Does this bug you too?
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