After living in Saudi Arabia for a year, it still strikes me as odd to see women driving, though I'm starting to notice it less. Still, I found an interesting article by an expat about the possibilities of women driving in the Magical Kingdom. Source (March 31, 2005 Letter 10 From Saudi Arabia, Driving Madness, R.F. Burton Private Papers)is here, but my favorite quote would be this...

" 'So Ibrahim, why do you think women aren't allowed to drive?' I asked.

Funny response when you consider that Saudi men are among the worst drivers in the world. As I wrote before, on a good day driving in Arabia is like playing Russian roulette, only with cars instead of bullets. On a bad day the sensation is like being strapped to an earth-bound asteroid."

I can vouch for that...The average speed on the highways in and around Riyadh is about 140 kph, or around 90 mph. I've never driven so fast in my life. Frankly, it was a great place to hone one's driving skills, because you can drive however you want. After the anti-terrorism training we had, it was nice to be able to practice it (and use it ).

Here in Japan, it's not so bad...there'e a lot of traffic, but mostly, people obey the law, drive sanely and politely...just on the wrong side of the road.