Parking bays on bus stops and street corners

Anyone driving through the streets of Sliema would be perplexed how parking bays are placed exactly on bus stops and by street corners. A typical example is the one situated in Rudolph Street corner with St James Street.

If ever a car is parked in a similar place a traffic warden will immediately issue a ticket to the offender, and rightly so. However, I am puzzled how Transport Malta or the local council decided to put up parking bays on bus stops.

In St Trophimus Street, a yellow passageway opposite the band club was recently freshly painted to enable (in case of emergency) a freeway at all times. This was a good and considered measure. Nevertheless, the local council again removed the yellow lines in the corner up the road to create a parking bay. This is to the detriment of cars coming from the side street into the main street.

To make matters worse further down the road the local council created another motorcycle parking bay next to the already existing one. It appears that the required distance from street corners is not always observed when parking bays are established. Common sense tells us that the motorcycle parking bay should be removed and replaced by a car parking bay. Around this area there are some 13 motor­cycle parking bays.

I suggest that before sending the handyman to paint parking bays on the streets of Sliema due consideration is given to the particular needs of the locality.