I recently came back from Dubai, though I was not successful in obtaining the driver's license because of urgent return back to country. But I learnt a lot from the common mistakes we Pakistanis commit in driving everyday.
I apply what I learnt from driving in a civilized manner, But every time on the road people make me feel like I am the only one who is crazy here. Driver does not give a sh*t about anything here, no adherence to basic traffic rules. They go by easily into a jammed intersection whether the traffic light is red, does not care about road shoulder, solid line. They think when they are giving the indicator to change line now its their right to change whenever they want without thinking how far the vehicle in that lane is. They have no idea about the right of way.
Even today morning I was approaching 7th avenue from Shakarparian, Islamabad while I was about to cross the second signal a guy in white Cultus approached from left merging lane, supposedly he stop and wait for the lane to clear and them merge, he horned and abused me for not giving him the way. Later i figured out he wanted to take a right turn from the intersection towards Abpara, and he wanted it from the free lane that is on extreme left of the road. Wow how civilized is that?
The other day I was approaching the T junction in the through road towards Blue Area, A taxi guy coming from F-7 using bridge over the 7th Avenue and without stopping or slowing down he approached and came right in front of me. I stopped the car along his and asked are you Ok? I was surprised to see his response when he said, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SLOW DOWN." LOL. I replied I wish you had basic schooling to understand the right of way concept.
Other than public, the system has lots of problems. No proper road marking, No lane dividers, no sign boards etc. The license issuing must be very very strict as the traffic is increasing day by day. The amount of fine is way too low, In Dubai if you cross a red signal the fine will be AED 800 around PKR 23,000. Just If we do not act now in coming years the traffic will be doubled or tripled in numbers.