It may have been caused by the Arriva buses, and not just the articulated ones. On the other hand, it could well be the result of the huge number of vehicles, undisciplined motorists and lack of enforcement of law and regulations.
Or, perhaps, by the many roads that have been closed, including main, arterial thoroughfares. There could be other explanations too or an accumulation of all the above.
Whatever the causes, traffic has become a nightmare, especially during rush hours but, as many drivers will quickly point out, even at many periods of the day throughout the whole week and in different parts of the country.
Traffic congestion has been the talk of the town for some time now but the situation seems to have become even worse over the past weeks as roadworks are seemingly going on all over the country without any coordination.
The chorus of disapproval by those complaining and expressing frustration at the unacceptable state of affairs on Maltese roads in terms of traffic flow and management is becoming louder.
Conspicuous by its deafening silence and its absence in this national debate is Transport Malta, whose mission, it declares, “is to promote and develop the transport sector”.
The best thing it can do is boast on its portal, under the heading A Transport Malta First, that “transport in Malta has now been greatly enhanced by the establishment of the Integrated Transport Strategy Directorate”.
If Transport Malta prefers to bury its head in the sand, at least its political master, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi, acknowledges that problems exist. He spoke on the need to improve traffic management and to address traffic bottlenecks when he met the coordinator of the European transport network programme Ten-T in Estonia.
The need to address traffic management and come up with a workable strategy that will start yielding results in the short term but also provides for long-term planning has become an urgent matter.
The latest figures issued by the National Statistics Office show there were 321,425 licensed motor verhicles at the end of September. Just over 79 per cent of these – that is, 254,890 – consisted of private cars.
If these had to proceed in a queue, they would cover 1,019 kilometres of the 1,894-kilometre road network in Malta.
And that excludes the 42,148 goods-carrying vehicles, 3,131 special purpose vehicles, 1,122 minibuses, 347 coaches and private buses and 307 route buses.
What needs to be done? A lot but certainly not rhetoric.
To start with, there just cannot be so many roads closed at the same time. Also, work on main road projects should continue round the clock.
The police authorities and local councils must come together to see that nothing slows down the flow of traffic, whether that may be pedestrians crossing main thoroughfares instead of using underpasses, red lights at traffic/pelican lights remaining on for longer than necessary for one to cross the road, double-parked cars or delivery vans blocking a whole lane, animals plodding along or driving instructors taking students to arterial roads during rush hours.
There is so much to be done to manage traffic adequately before we are forced to take extreme measures. Yet, doing nothing risks leading to stagnated roads and that can only have adverse effects on the country’s economy.