Just a lazy, unhealthy bunch of motor drivers

Albert Cilia Vincenti is absolutely correct in saying that trying to get Maltese youth (and others) on to bicycles is a lost cause (October 23).

But it is not necessarily a question of money. To equate the prevailing infatuation with cars with "love of money" ignores the paradox that cycling is, in fact, most popular in wealthy countries which are progressive and have a high standard of living, such as Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and, especially, Holland.

Two bloggers commenting on The Times website got it right. Besides having the money to buy objects of desire such as the image-enhancing car, preferably with personalised number plates, we are just a pampered bunch of softies who will always take the easiest and laziest option. Consequently the only conceivable way to move from A to B in Malta remains the car.

It simply never occurs to anybody that it is possible to walk or (dare one say it? - cycle) somewhere.

Because of the small size of our islands and consequent high visibility because we all know one another, the car is also a powerful status symbol. This attitude is so extreme that many people lavish far more care on their cars than they do to their personal health - or body shape - so that being fat and flabby doesn't matter as long as it is possible to flaunt a gleaming car. This unhealthy attitude is fostered by a government which continues to give priority to an infrastructure that favours the car.

Just to give an example of how progressive we are - the newly revamped uphill section of Tower Road in Sliema, which is a beastly stretch of street for cyclists, does not appear to have a cycle track. It is also a shame that no provision has been made to plant trees to make this new section of road shady in the summer, and less dreary. It's just more of the same - cars and smoke-emitting buses can proceed uphill unimpeded, that is important. That shoppers continue to breathe polluted air from the exhaust matters not a bit.