Msida roundabout jams
In recent decades a lot of effort has been directed at addressing traffic management at the Msida roundabout mostly to ease jams during rush hour. On March 16, a reader, Jo Cachia from Xgħajra, complained about driver confusion caused by the sudden...
In recent decades a lot of effort has been directed at addressing traffic management at the Msida roundabout mostly to ease jams during rush hour. On March 16, a reader, Jo Cachia from Xgħajra, complained about driver confusion caused by the sudden loss of access to one of the present four lanes, the slip road which used to lead cars coming from Valletta to Rue d’Argens towards Sliema.
This lane has unexpectedly been restricted only to drivers wishing to proceed back to Valletta! No official advice has been offered to commuters since. Sliema traffic coming from Valletta has now been crammed into the remaining three lanes which also serve Birkirkara and St Julians. Over the past days one could note that the slip road has been turned into an idle lane.
A rational explanation seems overdue. If motorists were slowing traffic when exiting from the slip road to proceed to Rue d’Argens, creating a bigger problem is far from being the best solution. Why have a slip road at all then? The number of commuters returning to Valletta or coming down from Guardamangia into the traffic mayhem of Msida to go to Valletta when there are better and shorter connections, definitely does not justify such a loss of much-needed flow of traffic at the Msida roundabout.