Picture this scene. A sunny weekday morning. Malta is going to work as usual. But things look different. Large sections of wide pavements and major roads now have white lines which define cycle paths reserved for use by small powered two-wheeled vehicles.

These paths are thronged with a great many people who have discovered the unbelievable convenience of commuting to work on an e-bicycle or scooter without any worry about parking. Housewives, too, have left their car in the garage and have also gone shopping on a scooter.

Rather than the bored gloomy facial expression of car drivers stuck in the morning traffic jams, the scooter riders smile and beam; they occasionally wave happily to somebody they know; everybody is communicating. Official scooter parks with a guardian have sprouted here and there.

In Sliema there is a huge scooter park where frequent ferries depart for Valetta. People who work in Valletta now scoot to the ferry. Scooting has become trendy and is the in-thing. Traffic is sparse. The few cars, delivery vans and buses on the road flow easily. Among the cars on the road electrically driven cars are starting to appear. The air smells distinctly sweeter. We are getting there at last. The government's clever propaganda campaign and incentives to encourage people to forgo their car has worked.

This is the stuff of dreams, of course. In reality Malta is a noisy, grubby, smelly, litter-ridden, polluted dump. Years of neglect by successive environment and transport ministers have resulted in smelly mountains of garbage, ubiquitous litter and polluted air. Traffic is becoming more congested by the hour and on hot still days vehicle exhaust chokes the air.

Cars continue to arrive in Malta by approximately one thousand per month. Malta has become an affluent country so it is inevitable that car ownership will increase accordingly. There is nothing wrong with widespread car ownership. The problem lies in the fact that the car occupies a central place in our pursuit of contentment and that people simply (over-)use their cars when they could otherwise walk or cycle.

The appearance of a few individuals commuting to work on electric scooters had given us a faint glimmer of what it would be like if the Environment and Transport ministries got their act together in the first place. The idea of convenient mini-transporters was just about to catch on. It took a few kids riding recklessy on electric scooters for the clumsy incompetent fist of the Ministry of Transport (ADT) to immediately thump the dream by declaring these electric scooters illegal.

The ADT and environment departments are failing in their duty if they do not learn the lesson from this scooter episode. The inept way in which the ADT handled it has thrown everybody into confusion. Now nobody risks investing in an electric scooter or bicycle lest it turns out to be a luxury which cannot be used. The ADT is still unable to decide whether or not the electric scooters at the centre of the controversy are "toys". They are definitely not toys and children should under no circumstances be allowed to ride them.

The ADT must come out with a clear policy on alternative transport. The starting point for ADT must be that sooner or later alternative modes of transport will become indispensable. The most important single step the ADT should take is to immediately legalise the scooters and similar vehicles and set about putting a mechanism in place for their licensing, at the same time imposing a lower age limit on them and all other motorised two wheeler vehicles. The matter deserves to be settled before the end of summer.

People are less likely to be tempted to sample the pleasure and convenience of commuting on an 'e- two-wheeler' when the stormy weather sets in. In any event, ignoring the problem won't make it disappear.

What is to be done? The main thrusts must be 1) to create a framework for legalising the use of small electric two-wheeled cycles or scooters and low capacity moped bicycles and defining where they can be used. 2) draw up guidelines for the incorporation of cycle paths and cycle-ways on wide pavements. Unfortunately all of our pavements, including wide pavements and promenades, were designed without allowing for the possibility of including a cycle-path later on. There has been talk of cycle paths but, as usual, nothing ever came of it. 3) Efforts should be made to encourage people to discover the convenience of little electric scooters or e-bicycles (or the humble bicycle) for short journeys.

The main problem facing the would-be scooter commuter is where to ride - on the road or on the pavement? As long as the ADT continues to fumble and confuse the issue, would-be electric scooter or bicycle commuters will hesitate before committing themselves to buying one of these environment-friendly machines.

The ADT and Environment Department must radically revise their thinking on the traffic/pollution problem. The starting point would be to stop thinking only in terms of cars. Countries like Denmark and Holland, where cyclists have full rights as legitimate road users, have been doing this for decades. In the box below I am making a number of suggestions which might be helpful:

Encourage environmentally-friendly means of transport

In view of the serious degree of pollution from vehicle emissions and the increasing congestion of traffic, draw up a plan aimed at reducing road traffic through the use of environmentally-friendly means of transport such as electrically driven cars and low powered two wheeled vehicles (mopeds, e-bicycles, scooters and electric cars).

This plan should address the following:

1) Draw up a framework for the legalisation of small two-wheeled vehicles below a certain wattage or capacity. This would include:

a) the imposition of a minimum age limit on the use of all motorised vehicles to prevent their unrestrained use by unsuitably young persons.

b) the creation of a licensing system for motorised two-wheeled vehicles under a certain wattage or capacity and electric cars for which there is currently no provision for a licence. While zero-rated licences would be acceptable, consideration should be given to levying a small licence fee to reduce frivolous use of these vehicles. As well as covering administrative fees, this licence fee could incorporate an insurance policy which could be underwritten by a local insurance company.

2) The provision of (cycle) lanes and paths for low powered two-wheeled vehicle and bicycles:

a) henceforth all road embellishments and street upgrading must include, where appropriate, provision for a cycle lane or path.

b) as an interim measure, until (cycle) paths and lanes on pavements and major roads might become available, the use of e-bicycles and scooters should be permitted on wide pavements and promenades during typical commuting times, say, 7 to 9.30 a.m., noon to 2 p.m. and 4.30 to 7.30 p.m. on working days and Saturday mornings. This would be quite compatible with use of the promenades as pedestrians tend to crowd such promenades mostly during the evenings.

c) clearly define the obligations of motorists towards smaller two-wheeled vehicles and vice versa in consultation with experienced cyclists and traffic experts. The aim of this should be i) to reduce the degree of danger (both real and perceived) to the users of small vehicles who share the road with larger vehicles and ii) to change the current attitude that a small vehicle does not have as much right as larger vehicles. Update the pertinent traffic code to bring them in line with other EU countries. Impose heavy fines on motorists guilty of endangering users of small vehicles.

This should include a clear warning to motorists, especially drivers of large vehicles, that henceforth they will be severely penalised if they are found guilty of endangering other road users.

3) Encourage the use of environment-friendly modes of transport (including bicycles) by all possible means - these include, at the very least, incentives, propaganda (TV, radio) - in addition to construction of cycle paths where appropriate.