Driving and Dodging in Marrakech
I begin by saying how much I appreciate driving in Spain. I have spent a long time throwing barbs at our driving habits, but when you sometimes compare with another country you can rightly feel that things here are not so bad after all.
We recently visited Marrakech, and the bottom line is that we had a wonderful time. The people were very hospitable, in spite of the fact that so many live in dirt and abject poverty. The one thing that broke my heart was the number of elderly women who have nothing and daily go hungry. I quite naturally felt I should have given them money, but they are so numerous, the problem is overwhelming.
I want to focus a little on driving habits and street life. Within the city, so far as I could see there seems to be very few rules. For instance, one day we had to wait to be picked up for a sightseeing trip. The place at which we were standing was a plaza with a roundabout and a central island. Driving is on the right, so one expects traffic to circulate around the roundabout in a counter-clockwise direction. Not so! Traffic entering from our right that wanted to go left simply ignored the centre island and turned left meeting traffic coming from the left head-on. There was much horn blowing and dodging and weaving, but it all worked somehow.
There are the usual traffic signals, like stop, that most people tend to ignore. Hardly anyone wears seatbelts or helmets, and the motorcycle serves as a motor taxi for the whole family. When we add to this mix the fact that a thick layer of dust covers everything, and trash is ever present, combined with the crumbling state of most buildings and people congestion, the mind boggles and the eyes cannot take it all in.
Having said all that, the attitude of travellers is one of calm and tolerance. I never saw one example of road rage, or even discourtesy. It cannot be said that drivers are reckless, although as first sight it certainly seems that way. Were they actually so there would be a thousand crashes a minute. I didn’t witness even one accident of any consequence.
Driving in the countryside is another matter. The police are everywhere with their radar traps that are over-used. It seemed to me that the police are especially interested in vehicles with foreign plates or rental cars. In Cameroon, I observed that the police were worse than bandits as they spent their time in extracting “fines” on the spot from drivers. Someone suggested that is how they earn their living as the State rarely pays them.
I probably won’t go back to Marrakech because we have seen the sights, but for someone who has never been it can be a fun place to visit. It certainly is an eye-opener.
On our last day we passed a business that displayed the following sign: “Would you like to rent a Car?” My response was, “Are you Nuts?”
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
I begin by saying how much I appreciate driving in Spain. I have spent a long time throwing barbs at our driving habits, but when you sometimes compare with another country you can rightly feel that things here are not so bad after all.
We recently visited Marrakech, and the bottom line is that we had a wonderful time. The people were very hospitable, in spite of the fact that so many live in dirt and abject poverty. The one thing that broke my heart was the number of elderly women who have nothing and daily go hungry. I quite naturally felt I should have given them money, but they are so numerous, the problem is overwhelming.
I want to focus a little on driving habits and street life. Within the city, so far as I could see there seems to be very few rules. For instance, one day we had to wait to be picked up for a sightseeing trip. The place at which we were standing was a plaza with a roundabout and a central island. Driving is on the right, so one expects traffic to circulate around the roundabout in a counter-clockwise direction. Not so! Traffic entering from our right that wanted to go left simply ignored the centre island and turned left meeting traffic coming from the left head-on. There was much horn blowing and dodging and weaving, but it all worked somehow.
There are the usual traffic signals, like stop, that most people tend to ignore. Hardly anyone wears seatbelts or helmets, and the motorcycle serves as a motor taxi for the whole family. When we add to this mix the fact that a thick layer of dust covers everything, and trash is ever present, combined with the crumbling state of most buildings and people congestion, the mind boggles and the eyes cannot take it all in.
Having said all that, the attitude of travellers is one of calm and tolerance. I never saw one example of road rage, or even discourtesy. It cannot be said that drivers are reckless, although as first sight it certainly seems that way. Were they actually so there would be a thousand crashes a minute. I didn’t witness even one accident of any consequence.
Driving in the countryside is another matter. The police are everywhere with their radar traps that are over-used. It seemed to me that the police are especially interested in vehicles with foreign plates or rental cars. In Cameroon, I observed that the police were worse than bandits as they spent their time in extracting “fines” on the spot from drivers. Someone suggested that is how they earn their living as the State rarely pays them.
I probably won’t go back to Marrakech because we have seen the sights, but for someone who has never been it can be a fun place to visit. It certainly is an eye-opener.
On our last day we passed a business that displayed the following sign: “Would you like to rent a Car?” My response was, “Are you Nuts?”
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
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