Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Traffic Department has said women drivers in the country rarely violated traffic rules.

While many women are complaining that they have to wait for a long time before they are admitted to the schools that teach them driving, a source at the Department of Traffic has claimed that these schools are among the best in the world.

The source, quoted by Al-Watan newspaper on Monday, said in European countries such as Germany, it takes three to four months to obtain a driving license after training that cost at least 1,200 euros.

He said European countries would grant women who want to drive learning licenses for an experimental period of a year to two years before they were issued permanent licenses.

The source said the delay in admitting women to the driving schools in the Kingdom was caused by the keenness of these schools to provide them with high-quality training.

“The training needs time, effort and qualified instructors to ensure the women are taught good driving skills before they are granted the licenses to hit the road,” he said, adding that the women are also taught traffic rules and road regulations.

The women who leave Saudi driving schools are highly qualified drivers and they commit minimum number of traffic violations, the source said.

He said the instructors were highly qualified and were with university degrees and long experience in training.

According to the source, so far there are driving schools at five universities in the Kingdom. They are Princess Noura University in Riyadh, the Jeddah Advanced School at King Abdul Aziz University, the Eastern School at Imam Abdul Rahman Al-Faisal University in Dammam, the Tabuk School at Tabuk University and Al-Qassim School, which is set open at Al-Qassim University by the end of this month.

Driving schools for women in KSA among the best in the world, says traffic official