There has been talk that a ban on people riding bicycles on the Sliema promenade is under consideration.

While it is reasonable to argue that people should not ride bicycles on promenades, outright banning amounts to dealing with the matter the wrong way round. The mayor of St Julians has been quoted as commenting that “cyclists can go elsewhere but the promenade is not their place”. Fair enough, but this remark is not particularly constructive. Such uncompromising remarks typify the intolerant and antagonistic attitude to bicycle users in Malta.

The important starting point is this: The road along the Sliema front is dangerous for bicycle users so the only way to cycle in safety is on the promenade. It would therefore be more constructive to ask how the road might be made safer for bicycle users. For this reason it would be wrong to take a decision without consideration of a solution which takes the whole problem into account. This is very important because it would be very wrong to discourage the bicycle as a healthy mobility option in Sliema.

Conditions could not be worse for cycling on this road. The roadway is just wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other so that cyclists get forced against the pavement edge (or parked cars) by passing vehicles and buses. There is no traffic calming or speed restriction so that cars tend to travel at speeds dangerous to both pedestrians and cyclists; the road is also regularly used by drivers who show off their prowess by driving recklessly. As a consequence, anybody wishing to use a bicycle to traverse Sliema along the seafront must choose between taking refuge on the pavement, risking an accident by cycling on the road or using a car – as most people do.

Malta is now a signatory to the Parma Declaration on Environment. This includes a commitment to “provide each child with access to healthy and safe environments in which to walk and cycle to school...” but absolutely nothing is being done to promote cycling. Children continue to be deprived of the opportunity to grow up healthily in a quality environment where they can safely indulge in physical exercise and progressively develop more responsibility and other life skills.

A decision should not be taken without discussion of an alternative solution. Inhibiting cycling in Sliema would be wrong. The trend in European towns is to discourage car use and promote cycle use. Everything possible is being done to get people out of their cars and do exercise – and pollute less. Roads or pavements are constantly being redesigned so that they can be shared by cyclists and pedestrians. The bicycle culture is now so widely accepted abroad that it is commonplace to see pedestrians and bicycles sharing city roads. The ultimate approach is the woonerf, where people on bicycles, pedestrians – and cars – share the whole street. There are no pavements and the street functions as a public living space, where adults can go out safely because vehicle speed is kept to a minimum. The attitude to cycling has become so positive in many European cities and towns that the bicycle is now becoming a fashion statement.

There will always be people who complain. Those who are bothered by the occasional bicycle on the promenade would be more justified if they worried about the far greater threat from motor traffic. Apart from pollution which is responsible for much asthma and lung damage in growing children and a sizeable number of cancer deaths every year, we have around 20 deaths every year caused by motor vehicles – but none caused by the bicycle, and this includes pavements.

It is only in Malta that the bicycle is regarded with antagonism. A negative attitude to the bicycle exists at all levels of government and our inability to accept that it is a healthy non-polluting form of mobility for short trips is much to the detriment of a healthy lifestyle. It will be a backward step if the council takes action against the bicycle without first seeking a better solution.