The controlled vehicle access (CVA) system for Valletta was first introduced just over six years ago. Each month, on average, 80,500 vehicles enter the charging zone, which excludes the Valletta ring road. This is more than double the 33,000 cars that subscribed to the ‘V licence’ scheme before then.
CVA operates at a loss and is un-popular with residents, shop-owners and commuters. Why not scrap it, asked Prime Minister Joseph Muscat?
Parking or congestion charges in other capitals, such as London, Milan and Stockholm, have been introduced to cut the amount of traffic entering their city centres, reducing traffic pollution and forcing commuters to use public transport. None of these issues has applied in Valletta’s case. Indeed, the number of cars entering Valletta has increased markedly.
It was never clear what the objective of the CVA scheme was when it was introduced. Was it to increase revenue? It has not done so.
Was it to ensure residents in Valletta had a place to park? They have always had reserved spaces allocated and – as anyone who has received a parking ticket in the evening will tell you – they now have too many, especially as a number in the city remain empty at night.
Was it to encourage greater commercial activity in the city? Shop-owners and other commercial outlets have consistently complained of a sharp drop in business, though this may well have pre-dated CVA and been caused by greater competition from Sliema and other shopping centres, not CVA per se.
As for office commuters who work in Valletta, they have been clobbered by a charge which in most cases has had to come out of their pay packets.
Given these negative impacts why, as the Prime Minister implied, keep CVA?
There seems on the face of it a perfectly respectable case for doing away with it and re-introducing the ‘V licence’ scheme. But this alone will not solve the problem.
The key issue about traffic in Valletta – or anywhere else in Malta for that matter – is the inadequacy of parking facilities and the continuing public distaste for public transport. Solve these, and the unpopularity of visiting Valletta would be removed.
The essential point is to find the right balance between allowing access to Valletta and the needs of local residents and commercial entities. In Mdina, only local residents are free to enter while others do so on sufferance.
In Valletta, residents must give way to the needs of both a commercial centre and the administrative centre of government. The capital also needs to become a more vibrant centre at night.
Valletta’s status as a world heritage site must also be weighed in the scales with the need to discourage traffic from entering core, pedestrian-only zones, in the process affecting parking and traffic arrangements.
Balancing all these competing needs in Valletta poses a conundrum. Removing the CVA scheme and introducing a free-for-all on a first come first served basis will almost certainly lead to abuse and greater dissatisfaction.
Increase CVA charges and fewer visitors will come to Valletta with the consequent adverse commercial impact.
The answer may lie in seeking to reform the current scheme to encourage more visitors to come in at specific times of the day and at weekends and making it financially viable. One thing is sure: the situation cannot remain as it is because Valletta is at risk of becoming a place the Maltese do not want to visit.