Driving through Sliema

At long last the Valletta Accessibility Project has come into being with Malta's first Park and Ride scheme. It has been described as a big success, popular with visitors to Valletta. The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU has welcomed the project as bigger sales are foreseen by its members and letters and articles have appeared in praise of the scheme. It may be opportune now to consider limiting the entrance of traffic by non-residents. Valletta needs to be as traffic-free as possible in order to be appreciated.

Across the Marsamxett Harbour from Valletta lies Sliema with its appendices Gzira and St Julians - an area of Malta which is already vastly over-developed.

Like Valletta, Sliema is a destination for a great number of visitors for recreational purposes and shopping. The population density of this town is second only to Hong Kong and is set to increase by thousands more once the mega projects of Tignè Point and Town Square, Fort Cambridge and other planned developments are completed.

Currently there are heavy traffic flows in and out of Sliema and this is expected to get worse when these projects are completed with traffic levels around Tignè rising to motorway levels. Traffic congestion and chaos is expected to get even worse as this volume of traffic is to be funnelled through the single-lane tunnel connecting Tignè to Qui-Si-Sana.

Tignè Point and Town Square will alone be catering for over 3,500 public parking spaces, exacerbating even further the traffic problem for the tiny peninsula. Knowing that the Ferries car park is to be retained and the one in High Street is never full, the eastern point of Sliema will have more than enough parking spaces. Another car park in the Tignè peninsula will serve no purpose other than attracting even more traffic to Sliema and be a waste of public land. The Tignè/Qui-Si-Sana peninsula is too far away from the central, western and southern parts of the town where the actual parking problems lie.

The traffic policies being proposed are to have direct access from the Regional Road to Manoel Island and continuing round along the Gzira front to Tignè, Qui-Si-Sana and Tower Road. The traffic anticipated will be in the region of 30,000 daily as revealed by Mepa last March during the Ferries car park consultation meeting - a volume that is equivalent to having a major highway.

It seems that the authorities are thinking of transforming the Gzira, Sliema and St Julians sea fronts into an urban motorway, with traffic crawling along a two-lane road at a snail's pace. Long queues, delays and frustration are predicted by the traffic impact statement on the construction of the Qui-Si-Sana car park.

It is common knowledge that traffic causes exhaust fumes, that are carcinogenic, and slow-moving cars will further decrease the quality of air we breathe. It is widely known in medical circles that traffic levels over 12,000 per day are associated with asthma in children and respiratory problems in the elderly. Obviously, the more the traffic, the greater is the number of such illnesses. Traffic levels over 20,000 vehicles per day are associated with cancers such as childhood leukemia. This is substantiated by the recent leaflet published by the Malta Transport Authority (ADT), which explains the health hazards associated by repeated exposure to car emissions.

The necessity of reducing emissions that have a greenhouse effect is making daily headlines. The government has apparently put the environment as one of its top priorities and the EU is imposing obligations on governments to cut emissions. It has become a common occurrence for the Minister of the Environment to be photographed in the papers planting trees and encouraging people to take care of the environment. He has also written articles on the need of reducing waste and having Malta greener and cleaner. All this is good and commendable. However, what has been done to reduce car emissions and improve the quality of air that we and our children and grandchildren breathe? Unfortunately the answer is "very little".

The authorities are still thinking of creating structures to attract even more traffic in our midst. We seem to be lost in the fallacy of thinking that pollution is dispersed because of our small size. Traffic pollution is not cleared by the prevailing wind. This particular myth, so beloved by some officials, was blown apart a couple of years ago by Alfred Vella who showed that the pollution from traffic hot spots (like Sliema) will simply be shifted to other parts of the island. It has been proven that the wind actually disperses the pollution all over the island. It does not go away.

Improving the quality of the air we breathe is a must and should be put at the topmost of priorities. Yet, the authorities seem to have put this on the backburner in order to promote further building development.

Sliema is already highly polluted and congested. It does not need more traffic. The Sliema transport strategy needs to revisit the transport policies on future traffic arrangements. The success of the newly-inaugurated Park and Ride scheme is showing the way forward.

Sliema has three major entrance/exist points. These are Gzira, Mrabat and St Julians. All three districts have sparsely-populated areas where car parks can be constructed with minimal annoyance to the surrounding residents. Car parks for access into Sliema can be constructed at the old Gzira stadium, by the fly-over of the Regional Road at Mrabat and by Pender Place, St Julians. An efficient and clean public conveyance could then be introduced to take residents and visitors around the towns of Gzira, Sliema and St Julians removing the need for people to use their cars for moving around these towns.

The sea ferry to Valletta could be improved with public vehicular transport to Valletta centre from the landing place. This would link the two shopping centres allowing shoppers to move from the city to Sliema and vice versa without the use of their cars.

Restrictions can also be introduced to allow fewer cars from entering Sliema and the surrounding areas by extending pedestrianisation, introducing residents' parking zones and parking meters. If necessary even charging motorists for entry.

Sliema cries out for a holistic approach that will reduce traffic, solve the parking problems for the whole of the town and improve the environment and quality of life for its residents. Traffic planners and politicians have the obligation to think of the health of the people when formulating policies. Health is not to be gambled away. The time has arrived to recognise that this little island has too many cars. Their numbers on our roads are a scourge to our health and should be curtailed. Heavy traffic adjacent to inhabited areas should be discouraged. Let us now think of a Sliema accessibility project for this is the way forward.