Road reflections

We really must start off by than­king Transport Malta for at last patching the area of Route 1 from Għallis Tower towards Kennedy Grove. At last, 80km/h is comfortable, safe and the normal speed for all motorists and many Arriva bus drivers. The only fly in the ointment is the disgus­tingly high number of drivers who persist in doing little more than 50km/h, no matter whether the traffic stream wishes to travel faster or not.

We also note, with satisfaction, that the San Pawl Tat-Tarġa hill on the Salina/Naxxar road has been totally resurfaced. As it can now be climbed with verve and enthusiasm, we know it has finally been given a decent non-slip surface.

It will have to be regularly inspected and the concrete overspill from cement mixers re­moved at once. In fact, how about fining all the concrete companies that use this hill draconian amounts of money, so that it may be kept in a pristine condition, not at taxpayers’ expense.

However, it is now apparent that the super-reflective centrelines and edge markers that are so helpful to every night driver who uses the Naxxar/Salina road badly need cleaning and, in some areas, redoing, before further rains add to the damage already done.

These glass-laden lines are vital, especially since all reflective cats’ eyes were removed by Transport Malta months ago and there are few street lights to help motorists cope with a dark road and an incredible number of vehicles.

Daily transport for this scribe is still the 1978 Mini. The VRT looms and so a really thorough service was done. New brake discs up front seemed a good idea, as the rear shoes were replaced six months before.

All the grease nipples had grease pumped in (contemporary vehicles don’t have provision for greasing various important moving parts. The owner simply throws them away when the car fails the VRT or they fail while underway and the vehicle crashes).

Slightly perished rubber bellows were replaced, and at last the old sealed beam headlamps were thrown out and far more illuminating lights installed. I can now make out the road hazards, even when oncoming traffic fails to use their dip beams.

My least favourite night-time road is the stretch from Naxxar to San Ġwann or vice-versa. The centre Armco barrier was provided with fantastic reflectors for only a couple of hundred metres, plunging all old car drivers into the danger zone for much of the journey.

This is especially true as the ARMCO barrier was never painted with black and white stripes and it takes on a mud-coloured hue after every rainstorm.

Why is it equally impossible for drivers to display basic manners by dipping their lights when they are obviously blinding oncoming traffic? I am seriously considering putting 110-watt rally bulbs into the Mini to teach oncoming drivers a lesson that will remain with them for years.

After a couple of years of scary research, I have determined that drivers, both male and female of large SUVs, except Land Rovers, and young women in Mercedes and BMW cars have absolutely no respect for those of us who enjoy driving small vehicles.

On one hand, government pundits plead we should all drive small vehicles, a jolly good idea on paper.

Sadly, however, there is absolutely no real financial disadvantage, like owners being charged thousands of euros a year, for those who insist on driving their abominably large, truck-like vehicles, simply because they feel safe when surrounded by height and weight.

I always make an exception when it comes to Land Rover drivers, especially those who drive the classic series models, as so many are genuine workhorses and darned uncomfortable to boot.

More people use small cars like the Smart for two, the Toyota IQ alias Aston Martin Cygnet or the small Citroën, Peugeot or Toyota and even the VW, various Fiats and Hyundais.

There are also some, to me, strange Asian imports which may have the enormous disadvantage of not having par­ticularly good secondary ac­ci­dent strengths – rather like my own Mini, which was designed long before the passenger cell was a super-strengthened unit with robust built-in struts to help in a side shunt.

I get especially irritated when people overtake and close down the gap I have deliberately left so that I can stop in safety without modern aids.