Biking home through the St Julians Regional Road tunnel recently, I had the misfortune of getting stuck behind a relatively modern tourist coach that was nonetheless belching out clouds of acrid black smog right in my face.

So thick was the smoke, that despite a full-face helmet, I was left gasping for air and had to pull up to one side, risking life and limb in a much darkened tunnel.

Thankfully I made it home in one piece, albeit in an asthmatic stupor.

To think that until a few months ago we had some 500 of these menacing monsters plying our roads; which prompts me to offer a much-needed word of sympathy to Austin Gatt and his beleaguered bus reform. Alas, bad always breeds, while good is soon forgotten. Altogether, Dr Gatt may have added much more time to our trips, but also, more importantly, many more years to our lives. Gattspeed.