Having highlighted the importance of walkability in neighbourhoods in a previous article (‘Pedestrians come last’, December 21), it now makes sense to follow up with a discussion on the connections between towns and cities. For it is useless building walkable environments if they are not easily accessible.
There is a consensus that the way forward is investing in alternative modes of transport. The debate culminated around a year ago with the government’s surprise announcement that it had applied for EU funds for the construction of a billion-euro monorail system, an ambitious project envisaging a mix of overground and underground lines.
Many are not convinced. Some labelled it a white elephant, others a pipe dream. I declare it an absolute necessity.
Despite its small size, commuting in Malta is a major pain. Our hilly topography makes walking a laborious task, rendered virtually impossible due to the extensive urban sprawl and unwalkable space between towns.
Many tourists come to Malta thinking it is small enough to walk across it, which it would be if only it were designed more like a city, more compact, with tree-lined avenues and wide pavements.
But instead we have chaotic sprawl, and as a result, walking and cycling between towns is not a viable option for most people.
So how do we make travelling from one town to another an easy, convenient and enjoyable experience?
As things stand, the private car wins on all counts. And, in view of the fact that we are so enamoured of our cars, we believe that the only solution to improving the connections between towns and cities lies simply with upgrading road infrastructure: adding lanes and replacing traffic lights and roundabouts with multiple-level junctions.
Unfortunately, making traffic move faster is only a temporary solution. In the long-run, upgraded roads will only serve to attract more congestion, precisely because we love upgraded roads. It sounds counter-intuitive, however, studies prove this to be the case.
Consider the Coast Road. How much more willing are we to use ‘the most beautiful road in Malta’ now that there’s an extra lane allowing us to overtake that clueless motorist doing 40km/hr? Prior to its upgrading, we would have sought alternative routes, but today we gladly incorporate the Coast Road into our journey plan. We will no longer avoid trips or even postpone them, because driving through the Coast Road is a breeze.
Upgraded roads with additional lanes, flyovers and tunnels attract more vehicles precisely because they are better than roads with single lanes and traffic lights.
It’s a vicious cycle: although upgraded roads temporarily serve to ease congestion, traffic eventually catches up, not only because all those latent trips are now taking place but also because more people start choosing the car as their preferred mode of transport.
The only real solution is an extensive public transportation system that can not only bypass traffic but also circumvent Malta’s winding and awkward roads
We may not yet have reached saturation point, but we will in the coming years; because there is a limit to how wide our roads can get and how many complex junctions we can introduce, unless of course we are open to tearing down a few neighbourhoods and ripping through more of our countryside.
This is not to say that we should put a halt to road projects. I am all in favour of removing the Kappara roundabout, for example, because navigating your way around it is like playing a game of dodgeball. The flyover will make traffic flow better and reduce accidents. But it is delusional to think that flyovers and tunnels will in the long run eliminate congestion.
Having said that, I love cars. I love cars so much that I would like to see us return to a time when driving was a pleasurable experience, and not a necessary evil. The car, an instrument of freedom, has today become a clunky burden.
And yet, the car remains the most convenient way to get around.
Despite the many promises by successive administrations, the bus is still miles away from reaching the high standard that we have been led to expect, and as a result it is no competition to the private car.
Bus journey times are too sporadic and the system is flat-out unreliable. It is unacceptable that you have to wait 15, 20, 30 minutes, and in some cases a full hour for the next bus. Worse still, sometimes they don’t even show up. Or if they do show up, they have already reached full capacity and you’re left stranded.
Even if we do, however, improve efficiency and iron out the ‘teething problems’ that perpetually haunt our bus system, it is unlikely that the bus will ever be our preferred mode of transportation; this because the bus has the disadvantage of sharing the road with other vehicles.
There is no room for bus lanes on most of our roads.
Of course, there is always the option of removing on-street parking to make way for bus lanes but I don’t think our transport minister is too keen on digging his political grave.
And even if measures are introduced to reduce the number of cars on the road and speed up bus journeys, the bus will always remain a comparatively inconvenient and slow way of travelling, because the bus still has to navigate Malta’s extensive urban sprawl, manoeuvre its way around the island’s twisty narrow roads and, worst of all, make regular stops every few hundred feet. Journey times will always be too long.
This is not to say we should give up on the bus. They are a great way to move around outside of peak hours, and are ideal for short distances. But it is unrealistic to think that a functional bus system would cater for all our transport needs and turn our road network into an unclogged utopia. The only real solution, then, is an extensive public transportation system that can not only bypass traffic but also circumvent the island’s winding and awkward roads.
Some insist that a rail system is unfeasible owing to Malta’s relatively low population density. A fair statement, seeing that the population density of Malta is around 1700/km2, lower than that of major cities with rail networks.
But this number is deceiving, firstly because it does not take into consideration the 2.2 million tourists (include cruise arrivals) visiting us annually, and secondly because it fails to account for the fact that enormous chunks of the island are undeveloped and would not need to be covered by the rail network.
Our urban areas are significantly more concentrated. Msida and Ħamrun, for example, have population densities of over 8000/km2. Fgura and Sliema have numbers surpassing 10,000, while Qormi and Senglea have staggering population densities of 17,000/km2, making them two of most concentrated cities in the entire world. And our towns are only becoming denser.
Cities like Lille and Basel, with population densities lower than most of our towns, feature extensive rail networks. New York, famous for its 470-station subway system, is less dense than Sliema.
After decades of procrastination, it appears that policymakers have finally come to terms with the reality that a rail network is the only long-term transport solution for Malta.
But while it is positive to see concrete progress, it has been over a year since the government briefed us on its application for EU funds for a monorial.
On the other hand, there is something new every week about road projects.
We would certainly make bigger strides if we devoted at least half of the energy we dedicate to roads to making this rail system a reality.
By now we must realise that a rail network will not only improve mobility and foster economic growth but more importantly, it will turn our daily commutes into pleasant and convenient experiences, into journeys that we look forward to, rather than congested nightmares that we will soon desperately start avoiding.
Andrew Saliba is a communications and law graduate.