Editorial

Never mind the statistics, the truth is that driving in Malta is a nightmare. Most of the roads are simply horrendous. Our driving is horrible, and our manners at the wheel almost primeval. We do not need visitors to tell us all this. We know it ourselves. Getting from one place to another, a matter of a few kilometres, is getting more and more difficult as traffic gets blocked at junctions and at the countless number of traffic lights all over the island.

So, what are we going to do about it? Are we simply going to sit back and let traffic grow and grow without doing anything concrete to ease the tension of those who have to use their car every day? Are we going to let the situation get out of hand completely, as it is fast doing now, and then perhaps attempt to do something about it when it is too late?

Is it not about time for those who are in charge of seeing to the traffic situation to put their heads together in a bid to find solutions to mounting problems? As the situation stands today, we are having more and more traffic jams than ever.

Of course, one way of easing the massive traffic problem is having a reliable and efficient public transport service. But we do not, not as yet anyway. Which is why thousands prefer using their own car, despite the hassle they have to endure to reach their destination.

In the absence of an efficient public transport service, or until we have one, we can at least try not to create obstacles to the smooth flow of traffic as we are doing now. It is one of our ingrained habits to go from one extreme to another. Take traffic lights, for example.

When we had the first set installed on an experimental basis - those at Msida - it took us ages to take the next step, that is, to install more of them at junctions and crossroads that cried out for traffic control. Then when we did decide, we went to the other extreme and started putting up traffic lights here, there and everywhere. In some places, it is clear today that we have one too many.

The same goes for traffic calming measures. One can well understand the need for them in streets where there are schools or old people's homes, but again, some councils have become so over-enthusiastic that they decided to pepper a good number of streets in their localities with sleeping policemen. Who is going to control these councils? Is there no authority to advise them against the practice?

An innovation is the outward extension of pavements to provide bays for parking space, as is being done now in the main road leading to Mellieha. Don't they realise that they are creating death traps? And what about the obstacles village feasts create to traffic in summer? Apart from the need on the part of the police to be more sensible in making traffic arrangements, they should not close roads to allow the letting off of petards.

Over and above all these obstacles, we of course have cranes jutting out into roads - even when work on site is at a standstill! - and chaotic parking. Who is going to take a holistic approach of the situation and work out an action plan aimed at easing the mounting frustration of thousands of motorists?