Hear what cyclists have to say on traffic

Let me start by stating that cyclists do not want to slow down traffic any more than anyone else. In fact, cars can actually slow bicycles down too and therein lies the conundrum. It’s the number of cars on the island slowing down traffic.

However, for clarity’s sake, the “cycle lanes” referred to by Jean Karl Soler in Making Life Slightly Easier For Drivers (October 24) are actually cycle tracks, not lanes, a lane being on the same road and there lies the problem. While Transport Malta may have thought this was all very chintzy, the whole idea of a cycle track is to segregate cyclists and drivers, allowing an uninterrupted flow. Transport Malta’s versions tend to slow them down and only try to get rid of them: there is a subtle difference that boils down to design or lack of it.

Some tracks don’t even have ramps onto and off of the cycle track while others are only on one side of the road. I mean could you simply dart across traffic to join a track that’s on the other side of the road?

Does it imply a right of way to do so? The answer is clearly no, yet that’s the expectation. Similarly, can one maintain even a paltry 20kph on a cobbled path alongside pedestrians on a path interspersed by numerous driveways? The driveways, incidentally, equate to two speed humps for a car driver and which Transport Malta has yet to confirm who actually has right of way over. Now, if a cyclist has a choice of a much more respectable 40kph and a safer route compared to a 6kph walking speed crawl, what do you think s/he is going to opt for? Given their poor design perhaps Transport Malta should mitigate being sued.

Unsurprisingly, nobody at Transport Malta appears to cycle, so Transport Malta’s philosophy doesn’t quite grasp the fact that bicycles go beyond a slow-moving, leisurely Sunday plod or, as Mr Soler puts it, “joyriding”. But they can also be both fast sporting machines as well as realistic commuting solutions and therefore must be allowed on arterial roads. Cycle tracks and lanes in Malta, however, leave much to be desired and are not really fit for the purpose of efficient commuting. Something that even Transport Malta seems to, unofficially, at least, admit.

There is an urban legend that when designing the Mġarr cycle track the cycling federation were consulted and happily thought that they would get somewhere that cyclists could train in safety out of the way of cars, something that benefits both camps. The federation wanted a track, Transport Malta wanted a track but what each wanted was different. Transport Malta looked at the problem like car drivers, the federation as cyclists and what the latter ended up with clearly doesn’t work. Little wonder it is said they walked away from the whole sorry mess shaking their heads. As I said, it’s only an urban legend, however if, and possibly had, Transport Malta listened more carefully to what’s wanted (by cyclists), clearly Mr Soler wouldn’t have such difficulties.

After all, cyclists don’t want to slow down traffic anymore than anyone else, they are part of the traffic. So, please, don’t blame cyclists for not using poorly-designed cycle lanes and tracks. Blame “the fools on the hill” that designed them for not consulting and, particularly, listening properly to the needs of cyclists. Something that thankfully the Bicycling Advocacy Group (Malta) can now do.