Wardens about town

Before paying for wardens to make reports on traffic accidents instead of the police it would have been useful to make them more effective in trying to prevent them. In fact, for reasons that seem to be beyond their control, they are practically not trying at all.

Wardens focus almost exclusively on parking contraventions. That is not very demanding work. With Malta having one of the highest car densities in the world, by population and more so by core areas, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find parking space during working and shopping hours.

Add to that the innate challenge to sensible ability to be disciplined, so evident in the Maltese make-up, and issuing parking tickets is easier than a plucked-turkey shoot.

Once a ticket has been issued, rather than dream up a challenge of it-is-my-word-against-that-of-the-warden or risking the odds of challenging unsuccessfully and having it doubled, on top of the cost of one's time, the best normal thing to do is to pay up the fine.

Which may be irritating but is fair enough from the standpoint of the warden system. That, in part, is what it was set up for. But, stress the "in part" bit again. Proper revision of traffic practices should include other objectives, such as deterring reckless driving. That is something that all of us who drive seem to resort to, at least some of the time and often much more than that, without bothering to wonder whether a warden is watching, as we do when we park improperly.

Driving through red traffic lights is one objective now being addressed. It is about time that cameras are installed to capture such dangerous offences, starting with some of the main spots that seem to call up the devil-may-care instinct in motorists. It does not seem that, at least as part of the early stage of the experiment, such cameras will cover pedestrian crossings manned by pelican lights, which irresponsible drivers not infrequently ignore.

Also, little or nothing is being done regarding overspeeding. Installing speed cameras as a deterrent has been mentioned but there has been little follow-up information. Meanwhile, traffic limits are broken every minute of the day. This happens not only on urban roads but also within our towns and villages where 35-kilometre-per-hour limits are rarely if ever observed. Stretches covered by the limit waiting for traffic calming measures proposed in Mepa draft local plans seem to be an irresistible invitation to speedsters to do their thing and shoot through at double the limit. More responsible, average drivers break the limit by half-as-much or so.

What do wardens do about that? They do have jurisdiction within built-up areas but - I was told when I enquired - how can they tell exactly what speed one is driving at? And - it was further explained to me - if a warden takes steps against a driver who, he feels, is breaking the applicable speed limit, it is the warden's word against that of the driver. It is a legal oddity that the same difficulty does not seem to apply regarding parking offences.

Deploying the police force effectively, away from tasks that can be done by others, such as desk jobs and reporting on traffic accidents, is sensible enough. Much more needs to be done in other regards. Utilising wardens for preventive and deterrent purposes, rather than mainly to collect money through parking fines, remains a neglected objective.