Regular readers will be aware that I have been sounding off about the horrible effects even small quantities of Ethanol have on car engines, tanks and pipe lines that were made, especially in the UK from Edwardian times on. This is a long period, brought to a close in the early years of this century.

The EU has demanded that 10 per cent ethanol shall be added (up from five per cent) by the end of this year. Frankly, it’s only my social sense and a love of old machines that makes me continue mentioning the subject.

I only have classic cars and the everyday mount; a 1978 Mini was running rough, to say the least. All three cars are now behaving well. The regular addition of a Millers supplement sees to that and a change to ethanol-friendly fuel lines ensures that the pipes don’t split with the possible consequential fire.

I even established that SU carburettor parts have been ethanol-friendly since 2004, so if anyone has unchanged SU kits from the previous era, get ethanol friendly ones now.

Rumour has it that our bendy bus fleet is unduly prone to catching fire. Ten years ago the mayor of London, who appeared to be having a similar problem, had the interior of his buses treated with fire-retardant materials. Have we got a batch of these worked over buses? Or are they all liable to misbehave?

Did anyone think to tropicalise the darn things before sending them out on regular routes? Has anyone checked that fuel lines are bio-diesel and ethanol-tolerant?

It may be true that we have a loathing of these monster vehicles, but if they only run on express routes, possibly taking people from the ferry to the airport or to various park and ride facilities, they might then have a measure of acceptance, but to imagine as I witnessed recently on one of my infrequent visits to Sliema, four bendy monsters in line on the narrowish road from Spinola to the Ferries and then into Valletta is really stretching the temper of the average home owner berthed alongside the road, and the thousands of motorists stuck behind these unfriendly behemoths.

I frankly have enormous sympathy for the Transport Minister and Transport Malta CEO. Their number one problem has to be in working out how to get all, or at least the majority of the qualified managers, junior managers and the great mass of architects who could do so much in improving our erratic road system, on their side.

I joined the Traffic Control Board at the end of 1995. We literally viewed every request on its merits, aware that the safe passage of people and vehicles was not only our prime, but also our only, consideration, which is why we had excellent relations with the councils, police and each succeeding minister.

Then we were suddenly a part of the ADT, the chairman became a consultant and I became a pain in the new director’s neck. The ADT was amazingly political with lots of aspiring political types, whether at local or national level, all making their mark on how the ADT should run, sometimes from a very junior position within the concern.

I will say little about Transport Malta as I left that entity in 2006, and although still a consultant to some councils, the meanderings of this enormously powerful body are a closed book to me and often to the councils I attempt to help.

In traffic management, this is the real ‘nub’ of the problem. Councils make requests, but unlike the Traffic Control Board, which went out of its way to help and fine-tune the requests, Transport Malta either approves or disapproves the councils’ requests without offering any help at all.

Bad manners among road users appear to be on the increase. For example, when in slow-moving traffic on a major road, a driver wishes to come out of a side road or premises to join the major road, I and many others always give way to the driver who catches my eye or smiles. I never give way to the driver who looks the other way and tries to push into the traffic flow.

An example occurred when a middle-aged male in a lovely Alfa attempted to push in front of the ‘mighty min’ to join the traffic flow in Tower Road, Sliema. I edged forward, he stopped and I leant across the car and quietly told him: “If you had simply looked at me I would have allowed you through”. No shouting, no hooting no bad words and hopefully chauvinism will be forgotten by this poor example of motoring manhood.