Mepa launches action plan to improve air quality

Albert Bezzina

Apr 29th 2009, 14:07

J Abdilla. There is nothing essentially wrong in your arguments. What is essentially wrong is Government's persistence in taxing passenger cars on ownership and not on use (fuel tax) while imposing ridiculous taxation on commercial and public transport vehicles not even related to emissions technology standards and ignoring the fact that one of the worst health hazard are particulates which are predominantly emitted by these privileged road vehicles. Other hazardous emissions form all road vehicles are related to the age of the vehicles, which past and present value oriented taxation methods plus poor public transport, encourage old vehicles to be kept on the road.

Joseph E Briffa

Apr 28th 2009, 22:35

What's keeping the Authorities from taking action against the old buses and decrepit old commercial vehicles like concrete mixers, mobile cranes, stone carriers trucks ets for (1) belching profuse black exhaust fumes and (2) hogging the outer lanes when they should be in the inner lane? Are these above the law? There is no need to submit them to a VRT; all one has to do is for Wardens to jot their number down and their owners informed that until such time as they remedy the situation they must off the road. If they are cought again, they have to be taken off the road and made to pay a fine of say Eur100 a day. This is the only way to go forward; we are all fed up with these vehicles which have been got rid off in the UK and Italy because they are NOT road worthy. And let nobody come out in their defence, their owners are making lots of money and can afford to service them and maintain them in good shape like car owners.

Albert Bezzina

Apr 28th 2009, 22:22

Cont…
Passenger diesel cars consume a minor fraction of these fuels and therefore contribute proportionally less to airborne particulates than the heavier commercial vehicles. Judging by the way the authorities have always penalized the passenger car and been glaringly light handed towards road going juggernauts, I foresee nothing more than another excuse by the government to justify further restrictions on the use of passenger cars. There is nothing wrong in this except that I am convinced that this is part of an orchestrated multi-fronted assault on the motor car to force motorists and passengers out of their private personal transport onto public transport vehicles which will be provided by the winner of the public transport tender come summer. What is obscene is the fact that the situation has been allowed to deteriorate to kill off the current system (which many agree needed to be killed off) and than to suddenly implement restrictive measures on motorists – collectively called ‘positive traffic management measures’ to force a sudden augmentation in the number of commuters using the new public transport system to ensure a healthy return on the investment by the private sector, a monopolistic investment by one of the usual Maltese biggies.

Albert Bezzina

Apr 28th 2009, 22:19

First of all airborne particulates is a heterogeneous mix of naturally occurring and man made particles. The last official remarks by the authorities were that analysis was still trying to identify the constituents and origin of airborne particulates.
Excluding sea salt and windborne fine earth and emissions from neighboring countries, the relative sources of particulates of local origin have still not been quantified.
Of course MEPA is just repeating the Government's mantra of pointing fingers at the 'transport sector', conveniently ignoring the major contribution to airborne particulates emanating from the obsolete Marsa power station, the yet unmonitored Dellimara power station, the construction industry (has anyone read Profs Alfred Vella and Renato Camilleri's study on stone dust) from cutting concrete blocks (chromates) and excavations (dust and truck fumes).
If Mepa would like to improve air quality, it should have woken up to reality that the numerous passenger cars on the island are but a relatively minor contributor to total particulates.
This is because particulates from the transport sector originate primarily from diesel powered vehicles equitable to the 85000 tons of diesel and unknown amount of abused LHO used in the transport sector every year. cont.....

J.Abdilla

Apr 28th 2009, 19:40

It would be good be brutally honest and ask: are we ready to ditch our cars? It's very easy to complain about air quality and to complain that nothing is being done. But what is really needed is a change in mentality. I think that yes, motorists need to be taxed more, there should be incentives for people to use public transport (when it is finally improved...),and incentives to use bicycles (and i mean REAL incentives). Can't you see all the drivers in the morning rushing out to work with their cars? one driver per one car. Why don't we start a car sharing program? There are so many advantages to it. We save fuel, we save money, we save CO2 emissions, it makes a ride less boring, and there would be much less traffic, so that means you can sleep longer in the morning.

This is just one idea. There are lots of things that can be done.

We need someone who shouldn't mind about taking unpopular, hard decisions.

We are slowly killing ourselves, yet we don't admit it. Unfortunately, we'd rather point our fingers at MEPA, at our old buses and at the government.

Astrid Vella

Apr 28th 2009, 18:22

What’s to consult! The pollution is so bad it can be seen with the naked eye, or are they blinded by the exhaust fumes?

I wonder how much was spent to conclude what anyone on a major artery could have told them, that "Local data showed that the highest amount of excesses occurred in areas influenced by heavy traffic" - I suppose that's why MEPA approved the permit for the Fort Cambridge development to increase a thousand cars to the already heavy traffic at Tigne, not to mention the addition of loads more cars at Wied il-Ghasel where the main road traffic is already choking residents.

Funny how a proper Traffic Impact Assessment was not carried out for those projects, although people in the area are registering increasing rates of asthma. Who do we sue, MEPA? ADT? Its all a bad joke while we wonder why rates of cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons' also precipitated by vehicle emissions, are on the increase.

Oh but I forgot, the increasing importation of high-powered cars and high-rise apartment blocks are a sign of progress, or so we're told.

D. Scerri

Apr 28th 2009, 15:47

"Over the past years, Mepa has studied and monitored air quality and identified particulate matter in the ambient air as the major problem that needed to be addressed."

Duh...

Same old, same old. All talk, no action.

You can start by putting the buses into a museum.

Joe Morana

Apr 28th 2009, 15:33

There is no need for rocket science nor to invent the wheel. The Authorities (Malta Transport Authority, the Malta Standards Authority and the Police) should first and foremost start immediately with the very obvious, that is, law enforcement (ELEVENTH SCHEDULE of the MOTOR VEHICLE ROADWORTHINESS TEST and the MOTOR VEHICLES REGULATIONS) against polluters without fear or favor. This however must include the removal of exemptions made in these regulations in respect of old vehicles (buses), which are probably the worst offenders.
It is common knowledge that law enforcement regarding traffic excessive noxious emissions and noise pollution leaves much to be desired. I am confident that random spot checks at the Valletta terminus and along bus routes would yield much more results that the inadequate ADT SMS Emissions Alert Scheme.
Regretabbly, in its Consultation Questions MEPA made no refrerence to its own questionable development authorisation policies, which many beleive, defy sensible town planning logic. The Tigne devlopment projects in overdeveloped Sliema are a case in point.
Proper trafic management and adequate road infrastructure (not the propose new Ghadira one please ) are likely to contribute towards reduction of trafic pollution especially in urban congested areas.

Paul Barrett

Apr 28th 2009, 15:14

The contributor to air pollution is the public transport sector together with the mass of trucks and other commercial vehicles belching out fumes. There does also seem to be quite a few "official" vehicles that contribute an inordinate amount of pollution so perhaps getting these three sectors vehicles inspected and enforcement to rectify the problems should be the first task in reducing pollution.
In comparison, private vehicles individually cause only a fraction of the problem but appear to have faced the brunt of enforcement action taken under the "smoking vehicle" SMS system.

C Vella

Apr 28th 2009, 14:52

According to a recent article in the Times, the power station was identified as being the single largest contributor to airborne particulate matter.

Let's see what new tax the motorists will be burdened with next.

Out of curiosity, was data related to air quality gathered during the last public transport strike? Personally I noted quite a difference, but it would be interesting to see just how much cleaner the air was during that time.