For some years I’ve known Dr George Debono. As an exponent of the art of controlling a bicycle he probably has no local peers, but I really must take him to task when he claims that 30km/h maximum speed in towns should be introduced as soon as possible.

In 1998, when Peter Ripard was chairman of the Traffic Control Board, he introduced and I expedited a maximum 35km/h speed limit in towns and villages across the two islands. The majority of local councils cooperated very well and in fact requested lower limits in various sensitive areas, especially busy roads without pavements.

Lija is a prime example of a village where the core area takes an unwarranted amount of traffic along at least three of its roads without the benefit of adequate pavements.

If Transport Malta kept the archive records in some sort of logical order they would be able to go through all the councils and remind each and every one of the legal requirement to keep the speed limit signs up and in good order.

What makes pedestrians walk in carriageways and not on pavements?

In the light of experience I would agree with Dr Debono that 30 km/h is a speed more easily established than 35 km/h on vehicles, other than those with digital speed readouts, and it may well make more sense and would without doubt lower the prob-ability of serious injury to pedestrians. However we really must ask why pedestrians in towns and villages place themselves in the carriageway in the first place if there is some sort of pavement on at least one side of the road. The much-maligned Highway Code starts off by saying “the road is normally made up of a carriageway and one or two sidewalks [pavements]. The carriageway is meant for vehicles and the sidewalks are meant for pedestrians. Outside built-up areas pavements are generally replaced by hard shoulders, usually demarcated by a continuous white line.”

It might well be the time for pedestrians to be prosecuted for jaywalking. The crux of the problem and the most difficult bit to solve is, as with virtually every other motoring offence, the almost total lack of enforcement.

It is most obviously way beyond the scope of the political class to come to grips with what will be a very sensitive and possibly contentious exercise, but at some point the bullet must be bitten and draconian measures taken to ensure that our motoring population works within the parameters laid down in the Highway Code and the various back-up regulations.

Out of the urban environment I would opine that slow-moving traffic, especially during busy periods, is the cause of road rage, poor judgment calls and a general lowering of the pretty unusual lack of courtesy and manners shown by a great many motorists.

A modern approach to carriageway markings where vehicles are allowed to overtake whenever visibility allows a move would help enormously, and with the acceleration of contemporary cars, overtaking procedures are quite easy and safe.

Of course, ideally there would be minimum speed limits in force on all arterial roads, but how the heck, and who would be available to enforce them? Left to themselves, motorists will simply allow themselves to be dragged down with the mass.

On a separate occasion, Dr Debono took to task Caroline Galea, apparently for trying to get elderly 65-year-olds to stop driving. Frankly, in my elderly opinion I think Galea is mistaken. With age comes experience, the most important ingredient in keeping local motorists out of trouble. OK, so it’s a bit of a minority of golden oldies that happily cruise our arterial roads at speeds far in excess of the speed limit, but the majority of us understand the dial that shows our speed, go through speed cameras at a tad below the maximum, drive responsibly in towns and villages and quite often can spend time talking about the ‘Otto Cycle’, ignition timing, spark plugs and distributor point gaps, and how a carburettor works.

If any body of motorists should be banned I would suggest that Galea explores the possibility of keeping people off the road until they reach the age of 28. Accident statistics would show a dramatic decline, road manners would surely improve and we who still enjoy motoring in our 70s and 80s would have a relatively hassle-free motoring life.

An electric window winder recently broke on the family Ka, a vehicle valued for insurance at €3,000. The agent would have sold me one for an astonishing €380, about one eighth of the value of the car. To date we are trying to get it repaired. Readers will be informed of its progress.

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