Few people would deny that traffic congestion is one of the major problems in Malta today. Despite the minuscule size of our islands it can take well over an hour to travel just a few kilometres whether to get to and from work or to complete everyday errands.
The effects of this traffic mayhem are millions of lost hours of work and utter frustration for thousands of road users.
Will 2015 see the end of this nerve wrecking daily experience for motorists? The answer is: ‘very unlikely’. In fact, the new year is likely to be labelled as the annus horribilis for road users in Malta.
EU funds Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg was being pragmatic when he said he understood motorists’ frustration but the tight time frames to benefit from EU funding left no option.
“There is no time to waste. We have to act. Big projects, such as Salina coast road and the national flood relief, had to be speeded up,” according to Dr Borg.
To add to road users’ misery, the new public bus service operators are planning to have a further 120 buses on our roads. Hopefully, this addition will be compensated for by more people deciding to leave their cars at home and instead use the public buses.
One can argue at length as to why such large projects almost always end up being managed in crisis mode. This could partly be the result of excessive bureaucracy by the EU to approve funds, partly the result of lethargy by local bureaucrats to speed up whatever needs to be done to meet funding requirements and partly a cultural issue that is characterised by the lack of a sense of commitment to getting important projects completed on time and within budget.
But what would make a difference to regular road users in the coming year is some sensible traffic management systems and competent project management of the six major roadworks projects.
What matters now that the six major roadworks projects have been launched is that drivers and road users are helped to overcome the inevitable obstacles that await them in their daily travelling.
It would, for instance, help if a central traffic monitoring system were installed to guide drivers on how to avoid specific bottlenecks caused by traffic jams at a particular location at any given time. Timely announcements on all radio stations could be followed on car radios giving drivers the option of choosing alternative routes.
With the new public bus service starting in January it is crucially important that the new operators meet the expectations of thousands of frustrated travellers who have been promised so much improvement in the last few years but ended up with a substandard bus service. It is a good thing that fares have been kept at the same level but what will influence most commuters to use the buses will be the timeliness and efficiency of the new service.
Equally important is more effective management of the roadworks projects themselves. One important issue that needs to be considered is the possibility of introducing 24/7 work through a well organised shift system to speed up completion of works at least of those projects that involve busy traffic nodes.
Malta’s road network undoubtedly needs upgrading and the availability of EU funds in an opportunity that should not be missed. But mitigating the short-term pain of road users can and needs to be addressed.
Happy New Year to all our readers.