Giving priority to buses

A recent opinion poll commissioned by The Sunday Times highlighted the fact that the most common complaints about the Maltese public transport system related to the regularity and punctuality of the scheduled bus service.

In fact, an alarming 49.6% and 42.3% of people who were not satisfied with public transport respectively cited these as their reasons. As a corollary of this, over 79% of people who declared that they preferred using their car to public transport did so because it is considered 'quicker' than other forms of transport.

The sentiments being expressed by Maltese travellers in this survey are echoed in other European cities and, at face value, they present somewhat of a dilemma to the transport authorities. The problems of poor bus service regularity and punctuality in those built-up urban areas characterised by limited road space and immovable buildings are, more often than not, the result of increased levels of traffic congestion.

Thus, the typical cycle of congestion follows: the more traffic we put on our roads, the longer bus journeys take, bus running times exceed their scheduled times, bus services become less reliable, rides become less comfortable (more stops and starts in traffic) and bus service operating costs increase, etc.

The inherent uncertainty created by traffic delays to bus service operation tends to act as a catalyst for increased car dependence. After all, it is much more convenient for us to sit in comfort in a traffic jam listening to our car radios than it is to brave the elements waiting for a bus which may or may not arrive on time.

Transport trends over the last ten years have given transport planners much cause for concern. Unfortunately, the sustainable approach towards transport policy and planning advocated in the Structure Plan for the Maltese Islands back in 1992 was never really adopted in practice. Instead, over the years the basic transport strategy has mainly been that of responding to localised traffic problems - removing bottlenecks by widening roads and introducing new bypasses, tunnels and flyovers to ease the flow of traffic.

Today, it is clear that this approach was myopic. Those junctions and bypasses, which were constructed only in the Nineties, are already reaching saturation point. We did not really solve our traffic problems by increasing the capacity of road - we merely postponed them for a later date. In Marsa, for example, the installation of the traffic signal junction in 1998 worked wonderfully for the first few years but nowadays, with traffic levels having increased by an astounding 24% over the last five years, gridlock on the whole link could be expected to occur well before 2010 - with or without the bus lane!

Recent EU-financed traffic studies of our road network that are to be published shortly have confirmed the severity of the traffic problems facing Malta. These studies estimate that, with the kind of increase in traffic volumes being anticipated over the next ten years, the tunnels at St Venera, Tal-Qroqq and Regional Road would all need to be demolished, rebuilt and widened to accommodate three or four lanes in each direction - if our transport policy is to provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the free-flowing traffic that our motorists so covet.

Furthermore, wide-scale demolition of residences would be required for road widening in urban areas where new bypass provision is not possible. The reality is that Malta's road network has a limited, finite capacity and that long-term policy has to accept that new construction will not increase capacity indefinitely; traffic management will be needed to ration the limited network resources.

The recent introduction of new bus lanes in Malta must be viewed in a holistic manner, as part of an integrated strategy aimed at bringing about more sustainability to the development of our transport system in the medium to long term.

The tendency for many of us, as motorists, is not to see the broader picture when we are stuck in a traffic jam and late for work. The facts are that each year around 6,000 additional vehicles are licensed and put on to our roads and that this creates immense additional pressure and competition for scarce road space, parking space and garages.

As car owners, we often consider public transport to be a last resort and we tend to find an array of excuses for not using it - but, at the same time, we know full well that it is now fashionable to appear to be environmentally concerned.

Five years ago, old buses, ticket fraud and dilapidated bus shelters were the most common reasons for not using the bus service. The lack of mention of such deficiencies in the latest opinion poll seems to indicate that the substantial investment in new buses, ticket machines and bus shelters has paid off.

Now, criticism is focusing on operational punctuality and regularity of the bus service. This is probably fair comment by non-bus users; however, the solution to this problem probably lies with the same people, as fewer private vehicles on the road would mean less delay, better punctuality and more regular and reliable bus services. It is interesting to note that the third most common criticism of the bus service expressed by some 30% of survey respondents was that "bus drivers are arrogant".

Perhaps this statement might be equally applied to all drivers. Driving in traffic tends to bring out the worst in us, whatever vehicle we are driving and however educated we think we are. How many of us have lost our tempers with other road users, exchanged a few 'pleasantries' out of our car windows and then continued with our journeys, steaming at the collar!

So perhaps when we look at the wider picture, the introduction of new bus lanes may not be so 'hare-brained' or 'ill-conceived' as the more vociferous opinionists would have us believe. The fact that the Marsa bus lane has reduced typical journey times of nearly 100 public transport vehicles by around six minutes during the peak hour is, to say the least, rather encouraging.

With improvements to the bus lane design and to the traffic signal layout in Marsa, this journey-time saving to buses could be enhanced even further to provide the kind of punctuality and regularity in bus service operation being demanded by non-bus users.

Of course, not everyone will appreciate the rationale behind promoting public transport over private transport, and the debate will certainly not end here, but should we adopt a 'wait and see' attitude over the next five, ten or 15 years or should we try and do something about it now?

David Sutton is deputy chief executive of the Malta Transport Authority