Omar El Qayedy is a private center English teacher in Marrakech. He graduated with an English B.A. form Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh. He is a second year M.A. student of linguistics from the same university for the academic years of 2014-2016. He has a small modest amount of experience in teaching in public and private sectors. His interest is writing in spite of some hindrances.
Marrakech, Morocco
Talking about Marrakech city and its people often
brings its transportation into discussion. Since I was a student in the faculty
of letters, I have noticed that most of the means of transportation used to
circulate through the city areas are motorbikes rather than bicycles or cars or
other vehicles. The matter can be deemed as usual, but it is seen as a
controversial issue when the city is considered in comparison with other
Moroccan cities. I myself used to see the matter as usual; yet once I came out
from the faculty and saw lots of motorbikes set into rows in an enclosed area
next to the faculty, I was highly motivated to ask about the reasons behind the
overuse of this kind of vehicle especially because the people who are
responsible for guarding the motorbikes in parks often wear certain uniforms and do the job in a careful
way. I curiously asked some Marrakechies, including my classmates, about this overuse of
motorcycles in the city. They, therefore, gave me some logical and convincing
arguments about the issue.
To begin with, the streets of the old Medina in which
most of the Marrakechies live are narrow and overcrowded. Thus, to overcome the
problem of the Medina old plans of narrow streets, people have no way to move around
the Medina using cars or other vehicles rather than motorbikes. Because small
buildings with narrow alleys are part of the Medina aspects, people tend to
rely on motorbikes to easily get access to small places. More importantly, most of the houses in the Medina have no garages
or places to put any vehicle when not used. That
is, with small buildings people cannot accommodate other vehicles with space
when they are not in use. By contrast, motorcycles do not require much space
like that of cars do,
for instance.
Because Marrakech is characterized by its flat
geographical areas, people have no difficulty to move around in the city using
motorbikes. Circulating and moving from place to another using motorbikes does not require one to move up or down in
the streets of the city with any difficulty.
Unlike some cities with steep roads, the city land fortunately has no steep
roads to slow down the activity of motorcycles there. Thus, the level surface
of the city gladly helps people to move smoothly without any need of
reinforcing the speed of motorbikes. This undoubtedly encourages the people of
the city to rely on motorcycles.
As all people seek the economic use of money,
Marrakechi people very wisely prefer to use motorbikes to get to their destinations
by spending as little money as possible. Also,
to make such a balance between a moderate residence and a possessed vehicle,
motorbikes are preferred to be used in the place of other vehicles. What is
more, Motorbikes are not costly either when it comes to buying them or
affording their fuel or repairing them when they break down. Being not costly
in comparison with other vehicles, motorbikes are
easily accessible to anybody for daily use. That is, students use them to go to
the faculty or school. Street vendors rely on them to sell their commodity; bread distributors prefer them to facilitate their job
which demands successive stops from shop to shop.
In addition to money saving, motorbikes are also used
for time saving. In Marrakech, as a narrowed-street city, it is easy for a
motorcyclist to move from place to another more quickly
than in a car. With a motorbike, it may even
be possible to make your way between the
stopping cars waiting in a road crossing for the traffic light to be green.
Moreover, some motorcyclists can even use the pavement as their way in case the
road is overcrowded and blocked. Others just prefer motorbikes to free
themselves from the road rage incidents that may sometimes occur when traffic movement becomes
a hindrance. Therefore, nothing can make a motorcyclist late, in any
way, to reach his destination.
Another reason given is that Marrakechies tend to be
satisfied even with small things as being enough for their needs. Historically
speaking, the people of this city are characterized by their creativity in
making themselves and others enjoy things in a humorous way. Being so, most of
Marrakechies see it as enough to just have a motorbike instead of a car as a
vehicle. Even some rich people or university teachers, for whom it is possible
to get cars, prefer motorbikes as owned vehicles. Being able to create fun and
tell jokes even from small things for pleasure, some youngsters prefer
motorbikes because it is easy for them to change the appearance and sometimes
even the sound of these vehicles as they like. The use of motorcycles can be a
matter of imitation of others, too. As people
tend to imitate friends, neighbors and parents, most of the people in
Marrakech, especially youngsters, use motorbikes just because other people of
the city use them.
In brief,
people in Marrakech, especially youngsters, tend to use motorbikes rather than
other vehicles. The use of this kind of vehicle can be attributed to the old
plans of the city roads or the level surface of the city land. It can also be
ascribed to such a tendency to make an economic use of money and time that people
usually seek. No one also denies that Marrakechies are satisfied with motorcycles
either for their benefit or for imitating each other by having these vehicles.
For all these reasons, or for others, the people of the city keep using this
kind of vehicle so almost every home has a
motorbike.
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