I have now reached 3,646 km of accident and mostly incident free driving around the city of Doha. My car is unscratched and unscathed. Some of you may be thinking that I am tempting fate, and if I have a collision in the next week that I should have kept quiet… we shall see.

It has not been without witnessing driving behaviour which in the UK would have resulted in a ban, and could have resulted in serious collisions and inevitable injury. I have avoided several potential but minor accidents and seen the aftermath of several where they didn’t.

The rules state that you must not move your vehicle in the case of an accident until the police arrive. Without a police certificate after an accident it is impossible to get your vehicle repaired.

The driving style is quite different from the UK. Accelerate-brake, accelerate-brake, switch lanes, switch back, undertake, overtake, ignore the speed limit, cut across from the right lane to make a left at the roundabout or equally go straight ahead when you are in the outer lane.

There are advisory signs on many of the intersections, but which seem to have little effect in changing driving habits. On the whole, driving in Doha is not too difficult if you factor in unexpected manoeuvres by large vehicles, combined with aggressive/defensive driving and total concentration.