Very soon our new bus service will come on stream and from a personal point of view we are more than pleased that Bidnija residents, the proud owners of an unused bus shelter for many years, will now come ‘on stream’.
However, if this village and a few more which will be linked to civilisation, have a regular bus service which is vitally underused we feel, buses will operate no more than three times a day in either direction.
It takes a mere 10 minutes to drive from Qawra to Naxxar. However, as far as we can make out, the easiest and most interesting way to bus to Naxxar is to go as far as Baħar Iċ-Ċagħaq and change buses. This will mean that we still use private transport because whether we use this route or the Mosta route the bus journey will take far too long.
We had been hoping that with the arrival of the new public transport system the bus stops would be most carefully placed in safe areas. It can be argued that as we have slow speed restrictions bus stops canbe placed closer to bends andjunctions.
Sound traffic management is reflected in safety and bus stops should be placed a safe distance from bends and junctions bearing in mind that speed limits are seldom, if ever, obeyed unless there is a speed camera in the area.
Transport Malta does not want, or need, people driving into stationary buses, even if the motorists concerned were going a trifle faster than experience or prudence would dictate.
Which brings us to the absolute stupidity of putting a bus stop pole bang in the most dangerous area of the roundabout at the foot of the San Pawl Tat-Tarġa Hill.
Surely, everybody knows that this roundabout has a lousy camber and collects diesel residue like no other.
This can provide a happy learning ground for people wishing to hone their skid control ability, or, for the non-enthusiasts, a foul place to skid the car into the wall, or dare we say it – a stationary bus. Stopping in the confines of a roundabout is both stupid and frankly asking for trouble either from a law enforcement officer or other road users.
This little piece is primarily wafted in the direction of any bus people who fancy getting a side-swipe as they stop to pick up passengers from this delightfully dangerous stop, as well as any passengers who may be waiting on the pavement.
Continuous lines
Time and again we have seen irate motorists sick and tired of continuous lines and very slow movingtraffic.
If the road is safe, broken lines should be painted, becoming continuous for limited distances around blind bends.
The vast majority of motorists will slowly learn to respect the traffic management team employed by Transport Malta and will begin to trust the undoubted ability of the team members.
The erection of ‘minimum speed’ limits (blue instead of red signs) is long overdue. They are shown in the Highway Code and they are there because the police have approved their use.
We congratulated Transport Malta for removing the road markings on the Salina/Naxxar road, assuming that as a disproportionate number of slow-moving trucks and tractors use this road it would be redone with broken lines to allow the rest of the motoring world to overtake when safe to do so.
Not only are we still plagued with continuous lines but although a grand effort has been made on San Pawl Tat-Tarġa hill to stop drivers from hitting centrally-placed street furniture by placing two lines a metre apart, the mix used has, within days gone grey/black where vehicles have straddled the line.
However, at night the new lines more than make up for the lack of roadside lighting.
Possibly we should follow the US pattern of line colour because, in the south, with similar climatic conditions like us, they use red line paint, which seems to last far longer than our white mix.