Hundreds of vehicles an hour approach the Rotunda in Mosta using Main Street from Birkirkara and the three old towns, Rabat and Mġarr/Żebbiegħ, only to be totally confused by the almost non-stop use of the pedestrian crossing at the junction with the square.

Frankly, in my opinion it’s been many a long year since Mosta local council shook themselves up and attended to the normal rites of passage of motorised vehicles. Certainly pedestrians have the legal right of free movement across a pedestrian crossing, pelican lights and, if correctly marked for combined pedestrian use, traffic lights. But the Highway Code has a few paragraphs aimed especially at our pedestrian friends, and frankly they ignore them at their peril.

We can start at paragraph 37 of our Highway Code:

“When using any type of crossing you should make sure that the traffic has stopped before you start to cross over or push a pram onto a crossing.” Always cross between the studs or over the zebra markings. Never cross at the side of the crossing or on the zigzag lines.

Paragraph 38: “Traffic may need plenty of time to see you and stop at a crossing, and when the road is slippery vehicles will need even more time. Wait until the road or traffic has stopped from both directions before you cross. Keep looking both ways and listening, in case a driver or rider has not seen you and attempts to overtake a vehicle that has stopped.”

Paragraph 39: “Never stand on the kerb’s edge at a pedestrian crossing if you have no intention of crossing.”

Paragraph 40: “Never linger on a pedestrian crossing but cross over as quickly as possible.”

Paragraph 41: “When there is an island in the middle of the crossing, wait on the island before you cross the second half of the road – it is a separate crossing.”

Paragraph 42: “Be careful when stepping on the roadway and claiming right of way at a pedestrian crossing. Wait for gaps in the traffic especially if there are few pedestrians and the traffic has been stopped shortly before.”

Paragraph 43: “Where there is a pedestrian crossing place (or subway) within a reasonable distance (50 metres or less), do not cross the road at any other point.”

Most pedestrians appear to ignore para 42 completely, annoying a great number of motorists who obviously can only give way when they have seen pedestrians showing clear intent of a desire to cross the road; and pedestrians in turn must use common sense and not simply charge onto the crossing, for the rite of passage does not imply that motorists should be ‘mind readers’.

Motorists these days, especially on our overcrowded town or village roads, have enough problems simply keeping out of mechanical trouble without the stupid use of pedestrian crossings by a totally ignorant two-legged conglomerate of would-be road negotiators.

Some readers appear to think that we are totally against the use of speed or safety cameras. This of course tends to trivialise the situation. We are in favour of the correct use of the cameras, i.e. at dangerous sites where there have been many serious injuries and the death rate is high when compared to the international data. The roads should then be made safe as quickly as possible and the cameras removed.

We are not in favour of these cameras being used simply to line the pockets of the firm that erects them, with Transport Malta lurking behind and the involved council also being somewhat lower down in the pecking order.

If we have trouble with motorists and motorcyclists exceeding the speed limit at regular sites, place mobile cameras and keep moving them from site to site. This is a police function, and providing they can find the two or more cameras they once had this would provide a simple solution to our over-speeding friends.

Many local motorists on their travels abroad will have seen police directing traffic with great skill and aplomb. Traffic control is learned in every country of Europe, as far as we can gather, apart from Malta.

It is painfully obvious that police on point duty have absolutely no idea of how they should stand in the carriageway and give clear, concise directions to all traffic, as shown in our Highway Code.

Wardens mark the veritable low point when directing traffic, as they insist on standing on the pavement and then make very rapid wrist movements which can be most easily misinterpreted.

When this happens the totally inept warden may well lose his or her temper and gesticulates or even shouts at the hapless motorist who failed to see the totally illegal (in the traffic control sense) flailing wrists of our gallant band of shepherds.