On Scooters and Speed Bumps

In addition to the stack of books, Ramon brought us a container of Vermont maple syrup, something you just can’t get in Morocco. He and Bob refused to eat any while they were here, knowing it wasn’t the treat for them that it is for us. Once they were gone, however, we whipped up a batch of French toast. Given that baguettes cost about 13 cents, we tend to buy them frequently, and are often throwing out stale bread. With our new syrup, we’re happy to put some stale loaves to work, and invited our friend Craig over for a last-minute midweek brunch.

At some point the conversation turned to the idea of sending the King a letter with suggestions of ways to improve Morocco. In the States, such a conversation isn’t very satisfying given the size of the country and the structural obstacles – is that Housing and Urban Development or the Interior Department or Land Management, and does the EPA still exist? The malaise is compounded by the current inhabitant of the White House. But living in a relatively small monarchy feeds such cocktail party chatter because in a lot of areas, if the King decides to do something, it gets done.

Our list wasn’t particularly ambitious, but we had had two things that would make the lives of all Marrakech’s inhabitants a little easier. OK, fine: it would make our lives easier. The first was to force taxi drivers to use their meters, rather than haggle with them over the price. That’s how it’s done in Fez, and it removes a certain amount of anxiety every time you hop in a cab. The second idea, which Craig proposed, was to ban motorcycles and scooters from the Medina. The problem is, as we’ve noted before, that the streets within the medina are shared by pedestrians, donkey carts, bikes and scooters. As narrow and packed as the streets are, the scooters are the most dangerous element. To compound the problem, many scooter drivers feel that they should have the right of way, and blare their horns as they zip through at 30 miles an hour, mere centimeters from terrified pedestrians. The bottlenecks during the day help to mitigate this, but at night, the high-pitched whine of a scooter at full throttle is a common and hair-raising sound. We agreed with Craig’s assessment of the problem, but felt a ban impractical. People need to get to and from their houses, and generally park the scooters in their courtyards.

The very next morning, we walked out our front door, and what did we see, but a series of freshly laid cement speed bumps along our street in the medina! What a great idea. The cement was still a bit wet, but it was working. People and donkeys passed easily over them, and scooters slowed to a crawl. For financial reasons, speed bumps are even more effective in Morocco than they are in the States. The cost of repairing shocks is a burden, and so drivers of all types of vehicles routinely slow to a crawl in order to traverse bumps in the road that their American counterparts would blithely bounce across.

We went out about our day, making a mental note to check in with Craig to share the ingenious solution. It was almost as if the King had been listening in on our conversation and had came up with a practical, efficient and cheap solution. By that evening, though, our joy turned to despair. We returned home to find a handful of teenage boys (the most egregious scooter drivers) taking pick axes and sledge hammers to the speed bumps, which they told us were damaging their bikes. Well, yes, we thought: at top speed, you’ll damage your bike, and if we’re lucky, you’ll be flung off it at as well. That is the point.
The following day, the speed bumps remain down, and we wonder if the government will retaliate in a growing speed bump battle. We certainly hope so.

As we head out to snap a shot of speed bump remnants, we find the little square by the main entrance to the mosque filled with hundreds of scooters where normally there would be fewer than ten. We realize that this is the last Friday of Ramadan, or the holy day of the holy month. It’s like an Easter Sunday Mass, and any once-a-year mosque-goer is showing up today. With just a couple days left till Ramadan in over, we’re feeling an excitement in the air.