A crash course in humility

Everybody knows that the taxi drivers are crazy. It's the way they speed, then slow down and stop suddenly, then zig, zag, cross three lanes, honk, cut in and cut out. When my aunt and cousins visited, they were so traumatised by the taxis in Abu Dhabi that the goodbye hugs at the airport were especially long. By the time they came to the end of the holiday, my poor cousin Luke would plead with his mother to avoid the gaudily upholstered back seats, the haphazard driving and the near death experiences. He would rather walk in 40-degree heat.

Not that I blame the boy for his aversion. Driving habits are indeed unruly. To visitors, it must sometimes seem like standards of driving etiquette are completely different here. Although I suppose it is easy to understand how driving across the same city, through the same streets, hundreds of times per day could become tiring. Taxi drivers are seen by many as a menace on the roads, that's true. But I imagine that threading a taxi through the same streets every day for decades could impart a possibly exaggerated sense of familiarity and safety in a driver - the same roads, the same traffic lights, the same landmarks.

After enough time has passed, and enough daily repetitions have been made of the same routes, everything must begin to feel routine, even the trumped up SUVs doing 160 kph down Salam Street. Ho hum. A little traffic? Too much speed? Well, I know these roads. I can handle it. I am a finely tuned driving machine. I don't just see the opening gaps between cars, I sense them. Me and my car are a needle and thread, sewed through byways and highways to end at the destination.

Those terrible frustrating taxis, I find myself thinking. Where did they learn how to drive anyway? They are impossible. Along Airport Road on the way to Dubai last week, the traffic was slow, then quick. Stop then go. It was early morning and yet another sunny day, and I was singing along to the latest Coldplay album. The car stops then goes, stop then goes. The light turns green, I go, look up, then down. I see red and hit the brakes. Too late. I had slammed into the back of a taxi.