Regular traffic chaos in Victoria

Those who, like me, live in the precincts of St Francis Square, a popular area that hosts the Gozo Ministry, a good number of public offices as well as the Gozo lending library, can easily conclude that the traffic congestion that on a regular basis sprouts in this square should cause a serious headache to the relevant authorities.

I believe it should not be amiss for Victoria’s local council and Transport Malta to gauge this daily traffic disturbance in an urgent and serious manner. I see no reason why these public bodies should keep refraining from bringing an end or at least regularising this daily chaos in such a prime area of our city.

Just a couple of months ago Victoria’s council installed a special camera in this area with a view to restore order and remedy these congestions. However, so far, nothing positive appears to have cropped up from this initiative except perhaps a margin of revenue in our council’s coffers. The citizens are indeed earnest to be afforded a solution. To my dismay, after consulting the present council’s minutes online, I concluded that this problem has not been tackled.

It is a fact that since the introduction of the Arriva service in Gozo, chaos has escalated considerably in this prime area. The public is now witnessing day-in, day-out, and at regular intervals, various coaches entering St Francis Square and proceeding the wrong way just to enter from Main Gate Street into the bus terminus. This measure, which carries official blessing, is automatically blocking the traffic flow proceeding through Main Gate, Salvu Psaila, Vajringa, Palm, Dr Enrico Mizzi streets as well as St Francis Square. As if to add insult to injury, every now and then this hectic state also induces a cacophony of horns to the disgust of locals and passersby. Obviously any tourists and Maltese visitors who happen to be passing by remain astounded by this chaos.

Throughout my period as Victoria’s mayor, my council strove with the then Ministry for Gozo to introduce special traffic lights in the upper part of Main Gate Street to enable buses to reach the bus terminus as smoothly as possible. We had also stressed on the introduction of a bypass in order to prevent a huge part of the traffic from entering the city core.

Unfortunately all efforts proved useless. It appears that Gozo’s fate is destined to be left in the lurch by every central administration.