What in the past was lauded as an indicator of wealth and development in this country has become one of its major headaches. Various factors have led to the soaring number of vehicles on our roads. A legacy of ad hoc operation, mismanagement and lack of investment in public transport, lax application of transport planning policy and allocation of land uses, investment in road construction with a lack of consideration for other modes of travel and a significant influx of imported second-hand cars has resulted in a generation of young people who view the car as the only viable mode of travel.
The car gives freedom and independence but this comes at a price.
Based on the latest figures, for every 1,000 individuals between the ages of 18 and 90-plus, thus able to possess a driving licence, there are around 810 passenger cars. Journey runs (physically driving along mainstream traffic) I have done on the major commuting routes during weekday peak hours over a number of months have returned delays of around 98 to 100 hours a year. This means commuters are spending an average of roughly 23 minutes a day in traffic congestion on their primary commuting journeys during the morning and evening peaks.
There are two very obvious measures for ameliorating the traffic problem in this country: fewer vehicles on the road and efficient public transport. Yet proposing these in isolation is naïve. Most motorists do not undertake the conventional home-to-work commuting trip, making use of public transport unattractive to many. Equally ephemeral are grandiose proposals for nationwide underground urban systems of rapid mass transit.
These require enormous investment and there are also local physical constraints, such as patronage due to population, hilly topography, property rights and land fragmentation and lack of space for stations or facilities, interchanges and associated amenities to make such a system successful.
In addition, if local time frames for the construction of relatively short stretches of road are anything to go by, none of the readers of this paper will ever see the completion of the underground system. In the current environment, given the lack of infrastructure and motorist behaviour, cycling during weekday peaks may be perilous and also inconvenient if the destination does not have shower and changing facilities.
Equally ephemeral are grandiose proposals for nationwide underground urban systems of rapid mass transit.These require enormous investment and there are local physical constraints
Many contributors to the debate choose what they like from foreign public transport systems which have long been established and ingrained within the culture of a population. Taking London as an example, very few mention the massive traffic congestion problems on the motorways around and into the London area, the £11 congestion charge and the prohibitive costs of parking that go hand in hand with a robust public transport strategy.
There is a need for a holistic strategy that encompasses a number of sectors and not only transport. Short-, medium- and long-term plans may gradually influence modal change to more sustainable choices over time.
Land use planning has a very important role in all this. The 1990 Structure Plan and subsequent local plans promoted large developments along established strategic bus corridors. But this has not always been the case.
A number of developments, promoted by much political clout, are planned or have been built away from the public transport network, with some requiring additional road construction. Instead of favouring public transport, such misjudged land-use strategies encouraged more car trips and dependency.
Yet car use remains excessive, as witnessed in developments that are ideally located along important bus corridors and interchanges, such as Mater Dei Hospital and the University of Malta, which still attract a very large number of vehicles. It would be very interesting to know what measure of success the university’s green transport plan had on curbing car use and how this can be improved and suggested to companies with hundreds of employees.
Mepa has not updated its parking standards, which have allowed for a massive shortfall of on-site parking within urban areas, saw garages being lost to commercial outlets and allowed contributions from the Commuted Payment Parking Scheme and Urban Improvement Fund to be channelled elsewhere, other than the purpose they were intended for.
These shortcomings meant vehicles instead parked along streets, reducing road widths and road capacity. This reduction in widths leads to a number of problems. It precludes opportunities to introduce bus priority or cycle lanes and widening of pedestrian footways, hinders traffic circulation and obstructs the manoeuvring of larger vehicles. In most residential areas, cars cannot pass each other, servicing of commercial developments occurs on the street and refuse collection may cause significant queues.
We can’t expect people not to use their cars, but have to convince them to limit their use to short journeys or home-to-work commuting. Traffic problems won’t vanish overnight, but with a bipartisan, holistic, forward-looking strategy that focuses on every aspect that influences our travelling patterns, it is possible to alleviate the adverse effects considerably.
Solutions exist but instead of being passionate and reactive, we must have foresight and plan rationally and coherently.
Mr Bonello holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management and Planning from the University of Central England, Birmingham, and runs a planning consultancy.