When an economist declares that at present a most serious challenge that the Maltese economy is facing is the cost of traffic congestion on businesses and households, one has good reason to worry. When this economist happens to be the Minister of Finance, one frets about the impact of this phenomenon on economic activity that underpins our wellbeing.
When addressing a pre-budget breakfast meeting, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna identified traffic congestion as a serious threat to economic activity in Malta. The symptoms of this problem are obvious to anyone who uses our roads: hours lost in idling traffic for most of the day, employees turning up late for work, students missing part of their lessons arriving late for school, increasing level of air and noise pollution in most parts of the island especially in heavy built-up areas, lost retail business as shoppers increasingly give up trying to find a parking place to do their shopping, and many more incidents of road rage amongst drivers.
The causes of this problem are various: lack of a proper traffic management strategy, lax enforcement of sensible regulations on driving and parking, increasing affluence which makes buying and using a car affordable to many, a public transport system that has lost most of its credibility with citizens, and lack of investment in the roads infrastructure. Those who believe that this problem could be solved easily by one or two minor measures must be indulging in self-delusion.
The National Office of Statistics has confirmed that there are over 330,000 cars on our roads. When young people reach the age of 18, the first thing they, or their parents, do is to buy a car. There seems to be no prospect of public transport reform giving the planned results anytime soon despite promises of this happening by the government. At best, one can hope that the minister responsible for transport comes up with a coherent and comprehensive plan that includes both strategic and tactical measures to control the growth in traffic congestion.
One also hopes that the preparation of this plan will not be yet another academic exercise that will take months to deliver and is then shelved because of lack of funds or political will to implement its recommendations.
Some quick wins could be achieved with pure and simple common sense: strict enforcement of traffic regulations and new ones aimed at avoiding some causes of needless headaches to drivers such as double parking, speeding that often causes traffic jam accidents, and the use of horse drawn cabs on arterial roads during rush hours. Traffic wardens should be directed to take measures to speed up the flow of traffic rather than fining drivers for minor offences.
But what will make a real difference will be sensible strategies that will see public transport finally convincing the sceptical public that it pays to leave one’s car at home.
After more than a year, the present administration has still not delivered on the much promised remedies to the disastrous reforms in the public transport system attempted under the previous administration.
Investment in improving the quality of our roads and the available routes to get from one place to another is another possibility. In a heavily built island where in most areas villages and towns have become one big conurbation, building new roads may not be viable.
The technical solutions must come from the experts that the government needs to engage without further delay.