Transport Malta continues to stubbornly avoid modern approaches to protecting pedestrians and seems to make every effort to discourage people from walking.
In the latest twist to the Mrieħel bypass saga (Mrieħel Bypass Just Got More Dangerous, December 9), TM’s response to the death of two young girls on this bypass is to install traffic barriers reportedly on the basis that “...for safety reasons, people have to be discouraged from walking along arterial roads”. This is truly amazing: rather than taking steps to encourage drivers to drive responsibly they are now invited to drive carelessly. They will also have barriers to prevent them going off the side of the road if they “lose control” – this will be for nobody else’s benefit because the idea behind the barriers is to keep the road clear of pedestrians in the first place.
Installing barriers to deter pedestrians instead of addressing the problem of danger to pedestrians by introducing some form of traffic calming goes against the principle that roads are a public space which belongs to everybody and that there must be mutual consideration for all those who might need to use it, be it pedestrians, children or cyclists. This misguided decision adds yet another no-go area for humans by giving priority to motor traffic and not people when the needs of both can, and should, be accommodated.
The reasoning behind this decision would be acceptable if this bypass were a long stretch of high-speed motorway, but it is not. It is a short one-mile bit of road which separates a small community from Qormi’s centre.
In an earlier letter a suggested solution was to calm the traffic by creating a roundabout at the junction with the side-road leading into the industrial estate and installing one or two well sign-posted zebra crossings with bright Belisha beacon signs at suitable distances from each other on either side of the roundabout.
The zebra crossings would have a slightly raised platform with a central refuge island and clear road markings and possibly a rumble-strip to remind drivers of the crossing ahead. This would exert sufficient traffic calming to slow traffic slightly and it would make the road safer for people to cross without unduly lengthening the transit time because pedestrian need to cross very seldom.
As things now stand, vehicles must anyway slow down to around 60kph at about halfway along the bypass in order to avoid being caught by a speed camera; this, of course, encourages drivers to drive as fast as they can before they slow down for the camera. If, say, a speed limit as low as 60kph were to be imposed on this short bypass it would cause very little delay. Travelling at 80 kph, a distance of one mile can be covered in 72 seconds; travelling at 60 kph, it will need 96 seconds. Therefore travelling faster at 80 kph it represents a saving of just 24 seconds. The logical and civilised solution is to introduce some form of traffic calming as, for instance, zebra crossings, which would reduce travelling time only by a few seconds. Surely the welfare of pedestrians – and human lives – are worth more than these few seconds?