I think we can all agree on one thing: driving in Malta has become a time-wasting, rage-inducing, blasphemous necessity. Yes, necessity. Unless you have hours to waste.

Trying to be a good citizen I left my car at home to run an errand. I was at the bus stop near my home in Sliema, unsheltered from the sun, in time to catch the 9.10am bus going in the direction of Mater Dei, if you please. The plan was to catch a connecting bus near the hospital and from there, proceed to Birkirkara.

After half a wasted hour of waiting, I gave up and went back home, planning to return to the bus stop for the 10am bus in the same direction and with the same plan. I waited. And I waited. If I gave up and went home I’d be the receiver of a barrage of “I told you sos” from those at home. So I sunbathed a little bit longer as I waited for a bus to Valletta instead, but when these passed by they were full.

Waiting, and more waiting, until I just threw in the towel and returned sheepishly home. Two whole hours wasted because I fell for the Tal-Linja promotion that it’s better by bus. Not to be believed.

Everyone is complaining about the inefficiency of the public transport service.  Employees arrive late at work or back home, tourists are left stranded at the airport for a bus that runs on the hour but fills up and leaves; they are also left stranded when the X2 bus, that  should take them to the airport, arrives at different times. Our university students and hospital patients miss their appointments, while private vehicles crawl as they have to put up with one lane to make way for buses.

In the meantime, we are regaled with the news that new air routes will bring ever more tourists to fill hotel rooms that are forever being built. This means more people hiring cars, more people driving to and from beaches, more passengers filling up buses, more taxis on our roads, more accidents, more ambulances, more police cars mobilised and many more delays everywhere.

Are we hoping that the new Kappara fly-over is going to solve all these problems? Some maybe, but nowhere near what is radically needed.

When we joined the EU, I had hoped that the general standard of living would improve to include the daily basic things such as traffic management. We are let down by our transport authorities and the EU who constantly turn a blind eye wherever it suits them, blinded as they are by statistics showing prosperity. Do you feel prosperous when you are running an hour late?

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