Warning !!
 

Been to morocco loads of times on motorbikes~~~~~~~~~~~~~ but just returned after 3 weeks backpaking on local buses~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i have never seen so many police about stoping trafic ~ they no have proper radar guns and bmw 1200 rt to catch you .. And machine guns !!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ do not ride your bike fast !! And exeed the speed limit !!!

I would think respecting local laws, whether traffic or otherwise, would be sound advise for travelers to any country, we expect visitors to obey our laws, it is arrogant to think we can ignore theirs, if you speed and get caught...tough.

I noticed three speed traps last trip.

They usually position themselver a couple kilometers outside the village, where there is a oued and a speed limit zone. The zone may extend for quite a bit after the oued, and that is where you get caught.
In one case, the police officer had cleverly parked a van so you could easily miss the speed sign.
I got into a discussion with him, who insisted on 400 Dh. The Moroccan lady who was also caught told me "you have to pay". But I was too mad. "If you are really looking after road security, why don't you position yourself by the oued? Why one km after?" "You give Morocco a bad name". That hurt his national pride. "Go to Algeria and TUnisia, and you will see chaos", he said. Good point.
"But this would NEVER happen in Algeria or Tunisia", I replied. At that he handed back my licence. "You give Sweden a bad name", he said.
Guess I will have to live with that.

Although I agree with you to a point, it's not as black and white as that in Morocco, often there is not any indication of the end of a speed restriction on your side of the road for example, multiple speed reductions for dry oueds on a straight road where you have only seen 12 vehicles in the last 180km, solid white lines around long open curves where you can see for miles and all the locals will overtake.

It's also very easy to be going over the speed limit without really knowing. TanTan has a bad name for the overzealous Police, travel from South to North and there is one very small 40 sign when you enter the town normally in Morocco towns are 60, as you leave the town there is a posh dual carriageway, at least two vehicles wide per side and there is not any indication of any increase in the speed limit, so I can only guess it's still a 40 zone which is crazy slow, you can guess where the Police set up their speed trap to catch the unwary :)

I saw dozens of speed traps in December, but they normally follow the same pattern, either just as you enter or leave a town or village or hiding on the toll roads.

Theres an awful lot less checkpoints than there used to be but they are getting better radar guns etc.

I've found in the touristy areas driving a hire car or foreign vehicle you'll generally get waved through unless you being really naughty. But if you use local transport buses grand taxis etc the vehicle is much more likely to be stopped. Officially theare only licensed to carry a certain number and a few dirham is normally requested for each person over this limit.

I've been stopped loads over the years but normally just get a talking too after being very apologetic, a bit of arabic helps more than french (in so many ways in Morocco :lol:) This year was our first speeding ticket:(

as I said things are much better than when we first visited when every checkpoint would stop every vehicle

Haven't been to Morocco since 2007 but had been loads of time before that, never stopped by the local Police and the only time one flagged me down was to get a lift after his car broke down about 20 miles from Town...between his poor English, my rubbish French and non-existent Arabic we managed to have a laugh on the way to Town at the expense of the British, the Americans (especially them) and the French...

Going back on October this year...

First time I visited Morocco I was enjoying the ultra smooth blacktops doing quite an illegal speed on my cafe racer. I came round a corner and to find a roadblock with stingers spread over the road and Force Auxilliares with guns pointed at me. What I didn't know was that the previous day the Air Force had tried to shoot down King Hassan II as he returned from Paris in his Boeing and people were being arrested all over the place. General Oufkir, one of the plotters 'committed suicide' afterwards.

Mind you, this was August 1972, so plus ça change. Don't speed. ;)

I've never been to Morocco, but am going this summer. How widely displayed are the speed signs? Are there parts of Morocco where some of the above is more of an issue?

Motorways are 120kph, so slightly higher than the UK. Non motorway roads are maximum 100kph, so 2mph faster than the UK. As you approach a town the signs clearly take you down to 80kph, 60kph and sometimes even 40kph (25mph).

No excuse for speeding. Get used to bumbling along at 80kph max most of the time and relax and watch the scenery.

Stop signs are twenty times more frequent than in the UK where they have largely been phased out in favour of give way or traffic lights. They are octagonal in shape, just like the UK, but have Arabic script for stop, not 'STOP'.

Roundabouts used to be priority to the right, i.e. joining traffic!! Most of these, but NOT ALL, are now priority to traffic already on the roundabout. Some (just to be perverse) are priority (both joining and also on the roundabout) to the bigger road, whilst the smaller road is expected to give way both joining and whilst on the roundabout.

Confused? No problem, just go slower.

Roundabouts appears to have gone european in the north and then gradually as you go south you are more expected to give way when you're in the roundabout.
But Place Etoile in Paris is still worser, when they attack you from all directions

:thumbup: exactly what I'd planned on doing!!!

I found sticking a small coloured sticker next to the relevant speeds on kmh helped when driving, one at 100, 80, 60 and 40.

much easier to read the kmh speed on our mph dials

Slightly off the speeding thing but I posted this on another forum a week or so ago........

All our “Tour Escort” vehicles, as well as my own private vehicles, are fitted with the “RoadHawk” event recorder unit that seem to be the pro-industry favourite.

We record an ENTIRE 20+ day tour in hi-def on a few SD cards showing GPS location on Google Map, sound, speed, time/date etc. The clarity of the hi-def is stunning. The bonus is of course you can replay and/or download the hard to explain visual bits of a trip by simply slipping card into your computer.

They come with befits……:thumbup1:..I was stopped a couple of months ago in Southern Morocco for alleged speeding and a traffic offence. I say alleged because knowing the road like the back of my hand I was aware of the police camera location and took great care.

600Dhm was requested when I was pulled over……..red faces when I run the event on my laptop……even showing the cops pointing the camera at me 100’s of metres ahead. The RoadHawk recording showed my speed to be 35km NOT the alleged 70Km and that I DIDN’T cross the white line :innocent:.

Crazy thing was that while I was distracted excepting a handshake and apology A’Hamed, our tour assistant, had jumped out of the following second escort vehicle and thinking the worst and that I was in trouble, had slipped one of the police offices 100Dhm …….. Duhhhhh :oops2:

Morocco is full of cars now compared to ten years ago and the driving is appalling at times, from some tourists as well, so in built up areas I hope they are helping reduce the bad driving.....? :innocent:

Around TanTan is/was often quite bad for completely non safety related money making speed traps way out in the desert away from anything, usually with signs going from 80 to 60 only a few metres apart.

I got 'caught' on my last trip doing 62 in a 60 zone about 30km before TanTan apparently. I claimed ignorance of any sign, discussed for 5 mins, said I would pay if I could check the sign first, drove back, put a rubbish bag over the sign, took a picture, showed the sign to the cops which caused confusion and laughter, repeated a few Arabic phrases ( Masha'allah and Allah alim - Gods will & God knows best) and was on my way....

If you can make them laugh your usually ok ;)

The highway from Tanger to Rabat last week seemed to have a radar trap about every half kilometer. But as we were NOT speeding ...... it wasn't a problem. Between there and here (Mirleft, near Tiznit) I haven't seen ONE.