With more and more new cars on the road every day, traffic problems are set to rise dramatically over the coming years. Since there has been no advance planning to tackle the issue concurrently with the rate of economic growth, there is now no quick-fix solution. However, there is clearly an urgent need for all the stakeholders involved to put their heads together to see how best to ease the problem until long-term plans, such as the building of a metro, for example, take shape.

Right now, tempers are flaring over traffic congestion and, in some places, interminable gridlock, leading to trips taking only between 15 and 20 minutes up to a few years ago now lasting an hour and even longer. Another major headache is, of course, lack of parking space practically everywhere but particularly in busy centres. No thought was given to this problem at official level and the result is there for all to see – drivers everywhere fuming over the long time they are taking to find a vacant parking slot.

Forward planning in the provision of parking space ought to have been considered part of the overall transport infrastructure. Yet, this, and the horrible state of most of the roads, were neglected. Now that the situation has reached crisis point, the government is redoing the roads and boasting about it. But the issue over lack of parking space remains.

Encouraging the use of public transport is laudable because it helps reduce the number of cars on the road and, therefore, pollution too. The changes made in public transport may have led to a rise in the number of passengers using it but, with the continuous rise in the number of foreign workers, the problem over traffic congestion and unavailability of parking space has worsened.

The long-standing controversy over whether resident parking schemes ought to be allowed or not is surfacing again, with the Sliema council complaining that, six years after its resident parking scheme was suspended by the central government, it was still waiting for the go-ahead to roll it out again.

A 2007 court judgment finding resident parking schemes discriminatory was confirmed on appeal but overruled by the Constitutional Court. To complicate matters even further, former transport minister Joseph Mizzi had gone on record saying in 2013 resident parking schemes ought to be abolished. His successor, Ian Borg, has said they are carrying out a nationwide study, presumably to work out a parking policy.

The situation as it stands is discriminatory in that, while the Sliema local council is not being allowed to relaunch its resident parking scheme, other localities are still running them.

Malta will not be making history if it were to allow resident parking schemes as they have been in existence in other countries for many years now. Maybe councils in heavily urbanised areas ought to be allowed to work out schemes that are not too restrictive, allowing reasonable parking time (during most of the day and definitely more than two hours) for non-residents. Another consideration is the installation of pay machines in most frequented places.

In drawing up resident parking schemes, the aim ultimately ought to be to strike a balance between the interests of residents and those who visit.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial