The board members at TM

I find as a columnist with over 40 years writing experience behind me that I have feet firmly placed in two somewhat similar fields. I still get great satisfaction being entrusted with various new cars as I drive them around our most interesting road system, sometimes viewing other drivers with the cynical eyes of the driving examiner I once was, often frustrated by the total lack of respect various drivers show towards their fellow travellers.

As a matter of common motoring fact I have enjoyed hill climbing an Aston Martin in the UK; hill climbing an X1/9 Fiat and a Fiesta in Malta; I have completed motor pursuits in an Aston and a Fiat in Malta; have conducted a variety of skilled driving tests in a Fiat 127 Sport; and have sat in the navigator’s seat in a variety of cars as we rallied through 1973-1977 championship series.

Successes in Cooper ‘S’ models were legion; a small Saab was great fun, as were a basic Ford Escort, Fiat 128, and even a Fiat 600, which we dragged into second place in quite a tricky rally.

The other foot rests firmly in basic traffic management. This art form I have striven to master, and after 18 years, latterly as a consultant, it has become obvious that even if the relevant department of Transport Malta has people highly qualified in various somewhat similar subjects there appears to be no one with the passion we displayed 16 years ago in the Traffic Control Board.

Factually, I have no words to describe my own personal opinion of the crew who are meant to ensure that all road signs, traffic calming measures and carriageway markings are not simply done to a reasonable standard, but to the very highest standard anywhere in the European Union.

Elsewhere – even slightly unnecessary road signs are being removed to ensure that drivers actually take note of what’s left. Here they proliferate like mouse droppings.

Elsewhere, busy roundabouts come equipped with temporary traffic lights to ensure the movement of traffic during rush hours. Over here we have gridlock, or people get frustrated and inch their way onto roundabouts even when they should have given way.

One of the most notorious junctions that cause massive snarling conditions is where Kennedy Drive joins the Coast Road at the Kennedy Memorial. In 1998, David Sutton, a most well-qualified board member, tried, at the time ineffectually, to make this junction in and out of Kennedy Drive ‘Left turn’ only. This proposal was turned down by the Traffic Control Board chairman.

Mr Sutton, for the sake of all the thousands of motorists stuck at this junction on a daily basis, use your influence with Transport Malta and introduce this vital scheme immediately, on safety grounds if for no other reason.

I, along with various serious motorists, sincerely congratulate Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for deciding to use his own Alfa Romeo 159 as his official car. Thank heavens we have a Prime Minister who knows one end of a car from the other.

A €7,000-a-year allowance is methinks a little mean. A big BMW would use and lose far more that when all the running costs with depreciation are calculated.

I am somewhat puzzled that in 2013, the board of Transport Malta may be composed of apparent ‘strangers to the fine technical aspects of the transport game’, with James Piscopo, Christopher Cachia, Charles Pace, Vanessa Vella, Alison Zerafa Civelli, Mark Sammut, Annette Farrugia, Alan Brown, Carmen Pullicino Orlando, Paul Muscat and Deborah Mercieca in very hot seats.

Don’t get me wrong, I wish them well. But, in my book, all members of the most important authority in Malta and Gozo should be composed of people absolutely on top of their speciality within Transport Malta, and with over 300,000 motor vehicles needing good roads and decent signage, quite apart from the dreaded public transport side, air transport and maritime transport, we all deserve not just names, but a serious ‘potted’ biography of each board member and what he or she has to offer TM, and in my book that includes the minister himself.

• This month’s photo is a minor digression. The most beautifully restored farm at Selmun, one of the most popular walking routes for foreigners, let alone Maltese, has the visitors centre board magnificently carved, telling the world what it is, but only in the Maltese tongue.

It is vital that important notices, signposts, and so on, are in both official languages, Maltese and English, with translations in Italian, French and German, to help visitors.