Traffic lights and cyclists

The traffic lights that control Park and Ride buses allowing them to join St Anne Street in Floriana were not devised initially for cyclists as implied by Dennis A. Darmanin (October 6) but were set up solely for the Park and Ride service. This included a cycle hire scheme, but far from facilitating cyclists in general, these were part and parcel of the Park and Ride scheme.

Mr Darmanin quite rightly points out that the detour for other traffic is about a kilometre (I suspect it is actually longer) but such extended routes and even bigger deviations to get around one-way systems are de rigueur for the island’s commuting cyclists. There is the saying that bicycles save you money and run on fat, cars run on money and save you fat! There isn’t one village or town where large one-way systems don’t exist (not to mention tunnels) and are proof that little thought has gone into planning how cyclists, who as stated above circulate one-way systems under their own power, cope with such geographical barriers.

While I feel Mr Darmanin’s pain and agree it may seem silly to stop normal traffic using the lights, cyclists have a far rougher time of it, navigating one-way systems designed purely as a methodology of coping with the sheer volume of cars. Of course the trade-off is some pretty impressive benefit.

If cyclists were included in the St Anne’s traffic lights I can assure Mr Darmanin it was a totally unintended outcome. If we want to help traffic flow and use cyclists as a way to reduce traffic queues and increase parking availability, this country’s town and urban planners need to start thinking about and talking to cyclists.