As a daily frustrated commuter I would like to learn who or what is responsible for the absurd traffic jams being created every morning throughout the entire island. Today it took me one hour and 40 minutes to get to Msida from Tarxien, out of which 45 minutes were spent in an idle vehicle in Fgura’s “benniena”.

Is one to blame the lack of use of public transport even though from what I see buses are always passing by at full capacity leaving desperate travellers stranded on bus stops? Or should one concentrate more on the other sources of the problem which I think could be summarised as the “competent” authorities? In fact, if one looks in depth at the problem a pattern to this tragic situation seems to emerge.

Respective local councils seem to enjoy changing road access on a random basis putting commuters in a situation where what was yesterday an accessible road now has a fresh one-way sign erected in it, obviously causing blockages due to lack of alternative routes.

Transport Malta on the other hand gives the impression of finding every justification possible to blame others, mainly local councils, even though I am quite sure most of the blame should be sought in-house as decisions like the closing of many arteries and their timing surely does not lie on councils.

The police force and/or wardens? Well, it seems that they are getting smaller in number by the day, not to mention being placed in absurd locations at which they spend most of the time pulling cars to the side to give contraventions for having a broken indicator, thus slowing down the traffic even more. In some cases one can notice one or two of them completely ignoring the traffic congestion and focusing their much required attention on other far less important issues than traffic flow. In my modest opinion, two motor bikes parked within two metres of each other at a roundabout with respective officers standing near their bikes instead of controlling traffic flow seems absurd to me, especially when drivers waiting their turn in roads leading to such roundabout are suffering from other drivers’ road rage-induced actions such as coming out of one way roads or driving for long stretches of road on the wrong side completely ignoring any applicable road sign. The Kordin and Mosque roundabouts and all roads leading to them are a clear example of this. With faith I sincerely feel that it is high time these authorities sit round a table and try to solve this problem once and for all as we have arrived at a situation where traffic congestion is reaching the chaotic levels one would expect in cities like Tokyo or Moscow, even though we are an insignificant fraction of their driving population! I truly feel something needs to be done and that whoever has the power to take the necessary steps to improve this situation doesn’t turn his back on the thousands of travelers and voters with the thought that there is “no problem”.