In July, I had criticised Transport Minister Joe Mizzi for renouncing his ministerial car for a bus ride in the morning, which was his way of tackling the Arriva “catastrophe”. In my opinion, it was a silly move and a gross error of judgment, especially when, pre-election, the Labour Party were saying that they had a full strategy already in place to tackle Arriva.
However, a few months down the line and with his ministerial seat now well warmed up, the minister is coming out with a few transport proposals and initiatives that are really music to my ears.
Only last week, after the Budget 2014 was presented to Parliament, Mr Mizzi was quoted as saying that a national transport strategy is being drafted to cover the next 10 years, which would include replacing roundabouts with flyovers and underpasses, among other measures.
Pity there’s no Like button here!
In hoping that this is not just a PR stunt resulting in yet another study destined to remain on one of the ministry’s shelves, I can only agree, commend and promote such out-of-the-box thinking.
Actually, the minister has only repeated what I had said months ago, and stating the rather obvious. The only way to solve our ridiculous traffic congestion issues is to go over or below ground, or use the waters that surround us.
The traffic situation has become a joke, and not a very funny one at that. We have a few ‘stay-away-unless-absolutely-necessary’ spots scattered around the island, such as Paola, Marsa, around Mater Dei, Birkirkara, Qormi and San Ġwann. Actually, I could list most of our main towns and villages.
Strategies and initiatives to take cars off our roads will never work, in a country where people are willing to go with their car to the grocery store round the corner, and with a nation reluctant to park further than 10 metres away from their final destination.
The number of cars on our roads is only set to rise, so the only way forward is to invest in more roads crossing over each other and designing road networks without bottlenecks.
I am also glad to hear that studies are being conducted on the Kappara junction flyover. I hope the project, which is set to start in 2014, will solve this problem area once and for all; however I’ll be dreading coming to work every morning while the project is under way. Hopefully it will not drag on ad infinitum, like many similar projects usually do here in Malta.
On public transport, the minister claimed that discussions between government and Arriva have reached their final stage. I presume this means that Arriva are here to stay, for better or for worse, without the company needing to make weekly mega losses and commuters’ needs being satisfied.
This would also contribute to less traffic congestion, fewer accidents and less pollution in the air.
Mr Mizzi has spoken a lot of sense over the past few months but to translate all his rhetoric into visible facts is a huge target he has set upon himself. Good luck!
motoring@timesofmalta.com