Freaking Out about Traffic Violations

Twelve of us at UC-Q worked the last 4 days and on the last day we went for lunch at Villagio, a nearby mall (complete with skating rink, canal and gondolas), Iman, who works in PR, remarked that she had to be careful parking, because if you park outside of the lines, you can get a fine. The newbies among us expressed scepticism, but then I remembered a colleague saying he had gotten almost $1,000 dollars in fines for speeding and parking violations. One major no-no is crossing the line at a traffic light ... if the camera catches you, it looks like you jumped the light, and that is a 6,000 QR (about $2,000 CAD) fine.





Chontelle, another colleague, told how she and her husband, James, were stopped at a light and were chatting and he let his foot off the brake just a tad ... enough to go over the line. Click ... the camera flashed. Startled, he backed up to get on the right side of the line and the camera flashed again. I think they will contest it. Considering how crazy the driving is here ... although legions say it is not as bad as Dubai or Kuwait ... the fines in the link above are simply amazing. At any rate, apparently you don’t even always know if you have violations until you go to return your rental or renew your licence. I had heard you might not be able to get an exit visa if there are fees outstanding and had visions of having to fork out thousands just to get on our plane to Nepal.

However there is an online service that will let you know. With bated breath I just checked and PHEW!!! No violations. I am very careful and really try to obey the rules, but there are some here that I just wouldn’t have even thought about ....