This article appears in Saudi Gazette. It correctly points out that one of the principal problems with driving in Saudi Arabia—and one of the main causes for accidents—is a clash of driving cultures exhibited by the many nationalities who drive in the Kingdom. If you grew up driving in India or the US, you cannot bring the driving customs of those places and expect them to work smoothly in Saudi Arabia. For the Saudis themselves, they are only now coming to a time where young Saudis learned through absorption about the road and cars while sitting in the cars their fathers drove.

Lot’s of countries are famed for their bad drivers. Even within the US, you find regional bad driving habits. When you mix different bad habits, you get chaos, i.e., the current state of Saudi roads.

Safra Academy offers free safe driving course
Diana Al-Jassem

JEDDAH – Safra Defensive Driving Academy will provide free driving course to 20,000 young Saudis and expatriates. An agreement in this regard was signed here on Monday by Council for Social Responsibility affiliated with Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Safra academy.

The agreement will allow young Saudis and expatriates to undergo a course in driving cars and trucks based on scientific rules to avoid traffic accidents.

“Safra is the first academy in Saudi Arabia to launch education programs and safe methods of driving. Our aim is to provide all segments of society with techniques of successful driving. We want to make them understand how to avoid accidents by having a comprehensive knowledge on safety measures,” said Aulfat Qabani, chief of the Council for Social Responsibility in Jeddah.
…

While this is a great scheme to improve road safety, I’m not sure another development, also reported in Saudi Gazette fits into it very well:

Driving license fee slashed to SR150