I have just googled “things that you can do in two hours” and apparently, taking a nap, a hot bubble bath or doing a spot of yoga are not activities beyond the realm of possibility.

What definitely should not be in the realm of possibility is sitting in a car for two hours in traffic for what should have been a 20-minute drive. Screw the bubble bath, I could have flown to Milan in that time and had an overpriced espresso in front of the Duomo.

In a country with an area of 316 kilometres squared where it would take you around seven hours to walk from Kalanka to the northmost tip of Mellieħa, one has to ponder: how long will this traffic farce continue?

I have sincerely tried everything; I left the house earlier, I left the house later (and almost lost my job in the process), I took the bus, hell, if Elon Musk had offered me a flying sheep machine to land on a terrace, I would have taken it, but try as I might, the situation remains about as comfortable as Dante’s fifth circle of hell.

You’re meant to go to work fresh, not demanding the blood of your enemies in a paper coffee cup

I really did momentarily think that the adding of lanes to Aldo Moro Road would make our collective trip to Golgotha slightly less sweat-inducing, but lo and behold, the second it was opened I realised that it was going to make little difference to my life when I had to first endure the Herculean task of the bottleneck road which leads down from Luqa into said Aldo Moro Road.

So, there I sit every day at any time between 7am and 9am waiting my turn to go in single file and that’s only where the fun starts. The party really gets into full swing when I have to find non-existent parking.

With Malta’s vehicle population reaching 379,000 last year, it has become clear that no widening of road or burning incense is going to change our predicament. Far from it being the perception that a supposed traffic expert said it was half a decade ago, this problem is not only very real but it is causing people a lot of anger and mental stress. You’re meant to go into work fresh, not demanding the blood of your enemies to be brought to you in a paper coffee cup.

The way forward should be clear. There is little point in widening the arteries of our roads, if the problem continues to increase; these are merely short-term solutions and precious little else.

New plans need to be put in place for a tram system, train system or metro or an effective bus system that doesn’t make our eyes water and our blood pressure rise every time we have to leave the house. There is simply no other way forward.