Past environment ministers, particularly Francis Zammit Dimech, and the Ministry of Transport have a lot to answer for. For decades they presided over an unprecedented increase in car traffic but remained indifferent to the threat to our health posed by the pollution generated by our traffic, especially diesel-driven vehicles with faulty engines.
The alternative, that of promoting the use of more environment-friendly electric vehicles, was never taken seriously enough by the Malta Transport Authority (ADT), and the antiquated traffic laws were consequently never updated to accommodate the use of electrically driven vehicles. The ADT was therefore taken by surprise and responded with utter bafflement when faced with the importation of the electric scooter.
The electric scooter saga is the kind of thing that can only happen in Malta. On the one side, we have a few youngsters who succeeded in bringing the recently introduced electric scooters into disrepute and on the other, we have the incompetence of the ADT, which is light years behind in its thinking. Caught in the middle of all this are a number of responsible adults who had just discovered a convenient environment-friendly way to commute to work or to carry out small errands.
They now own a machine which is seemingly illegal both on the pavement and on the road. At the same time, the importers are up in arms as they cannot sell their stock of electric two-wheelers. The sad tale is characterised by governmental lack of foresight, incompetence and lack of communication between departments.
It all apparently began after Customs informed an importer that motorised vehicles under 200 watts, which included e-bicycles and motorised scooters, did not require a licence.
For the purposes of importation, the electric scooters were therefore imported as 'toys'. Retailers sold the motorised scooters as toys.
Following this, a number of well-meaning parents misguidedly bought an electric scooter for their children. They were not entirely to blame for this since these scooters were imported as 'toys' in the first place and sold as such.
Soon children were to be seen careering on these scooters at their full speed (about twice the cruising speed of a bicycle) along pavements, shooing pedestrians out of their way. Some youngsters even took to the road. Complaints to the police, local wardens and the press started to pour in and set off a chain of events which nobody quite knew how to deal with.
Unprepared for the appearance of an environment-friendly little machine, the ADT handled the matter incompetently.
The ADT responded with the usual civil service knee-jerk reaction of stalling the problem with vague statements.
Initially, the ADT was reported as saying that it was illegal to ride the scooters in a public place, saying they had not been issued with a road licence because of (undefined) 'safety concerns'.
The ADT stated that the scooters were built for off-road use only. This was neither here nor there. The Department of Consumer Affairs (or was it still the ADT?) came up with another 'Doulos' absurdity.
Readers were informed by Edwin Vassallo that a temporary ban was placed on the importation of motorised scooters or similar vehicles defined by Customs as 'toys' until the scooters are 'certified as safe by a laboratory, possibly an overseas one'.
Why it needs an 'overseas' laboratory to determine the safety of a little electric scooter is anybody's guess.
The police then came into the picture. Regulation 18, we were now told by the police, lays down that "no motorised vehicle can be driven on the road without a licence issued by the Malta Transport Authority".
And the police also stated that section 15 of chapter 65 of the laws governing traffic says that "anyone driving a motor car, electric or other vehicle without a driving licence or an unlicensed vehicle, would be committing an offence".
So now we have a Catch-22 situation. This electric scooter is an almost perfect answer to our prayers for a safe, environment-friendly travelling gadget which eliminates our parking problems when doing our short- to medium-range errands, but it is an offence to use it as such.
The interesting point here is this: was the ADT unaware of Regulation 18 of legal notice 128 of 1994 all through this farce?
This absurd comedy of errors would not have arisen if the ADT had had the foresight to make provisions for low-powered environment-friendly vehicles in the first place. Faced with the problem, the ADT took the easiest way out and threw the baby out with the bathwater.
Some days later a positive development which provided a ray of hope was reported in the newspapers.
Somewhere, somebody on high made the following encouraging pronouncement - 'similar items not defined as toys' can be imported but users will have to obtain a licence from the ADT.
The licence will be zero-rated. Good idea. But this raises a worrying question. Does the ADT have the competence or mechanism to grant such a licence? Will it have the sense to do so and create conditions in which they can be used to advantage?
The bets are open as to whether this is just another delaying tactic to appease us until the whole story blows over. Another interesting question is: why would only 'similar items not defined as toys' be entitled to a licence and not this admirable little electric scooter? It is not a toy.
A number of people had already found it to be a perfect commuting tool with no parking problems. These people have been obliged to reluctantly go back to using their car.
As to getting the scooters 'certified as safe by a laboratory, possibly an overseas one', this pompous nonsense is a typical civil service stalling tactic.
If it were meant seriously, does our civil service really think that we really are so backward as to need an 'overseas laboratory' to decide for ourselves if an electric-powered scooter is safe or not?
How can a small, low- powered electric scooter running on a few volts possibly be unsafe? Surely the only safety problem of any small vehicle which is used as a bona fide means of transport (and not as a toy) depends on the decency of other drivers on the road?
This being so, is it not time that drivers of cars, buses etc, became conditioned to respecting other (smaller) road users and sharing the road with them.
In advanced countries like Denmark and Holland, cyclists and moped drivers enjoy full rights as legitimate road users; they have a privileged status on the road at intersections or where there is no cycle path and God help any motorist who knocks down a cyclist. This has been so for decades.
It is time the ADT ceased being so backward in its thinking and did something to encourage people to use more environment-friendly means of transport. The abominable way it has handled this storm in a teacup is not, to put it mildly, very reassuring.