Transport is a hot topic of conversation in Malta, now more than ever. There’s much debate surrounding the planned Malta-Gozo tunnel and the possibility of introducing a metro system.

One thing that we can all agree on is that our transport infrastructure is essential to safeguarding our economic progress and enabling us to become a global player.

Transport also has a significant environmental impact, and in turn a huge effect on our quality of life. Any investment into permanent links between our major islands should be to the benefit of us all.

Our buses have been the lifeblood in the veins of our country’s transport infrastructure for over a century, and in recent years Malta Public Transport have made huge improvements to the service. But what we have lost since the demise of the traditional buses in 2011 – which we experienced as a devastating blow to our cultural identity – is that sense of pride that was felt by the drivers and instilled within all of us, a pride in being Maltese. The buses were not only beautiful, bold and dynamic, but one of Malta’s most recognisable icons and loved by tourists.

They were so full of character, almost like Pixar Cars characters with their cute hooded head lamp eyes, split windscreens set below a rounded visor that gave them an endearing puppy-dog eyes expression and large smiling chrome bumpers. They were uplifting to behold, adorned with cultural and religious emblems like angel wings symbolising victory and flight.

The loving customisation by their driver-owners, including the heartfelt decorative flourishes of tberfil, is also what made them so captivating. I feel strongly that we need to keep these vibrant symbols of our industrial and cultural heritage alive for future generations, similar to the way in which London has celebrated and reimagined its iconic Routemaster.

However, it’s no secret that the old buses were terrible pollutants, contributing to a poisonous problem in Malta that we do need to tackle urgently. Air pollution is linked to asthma, heart disease and lung cancer and it also affects the built heritage and animal and plant health.

Why not transpose the beloved characteristics of the old buses onto a state-of-the-art fleet that is fit for the roads?

If we are to hit our emissions targets and clean up our air, we must make people love the buses again and get them on board with making better use of them. This will help to curb the number of vehicles on the roads, which would not only help reduce pollution but also free up space for the bus service to run more smoothly.

I see marrying the charm of the traditional buses with the environmental benefits of the latest technologies as the ideal solution. Why not transpose the beloved characteristics of the old buses on to a state-of-the-art fleet that is fit for the roads?

Electric buses are an increasingly common sight in European cities. London has already stopped acquiring diesel buses and made the commitment that all single deckers will be zero-emission by 2020. This is not a futuristic technology. We can have it now.

In fact, we have to. New EU laws mean that at least a quarter of new buses purchased by public authorities in cities across Europe will have to be ‘clean’ by 2025, at least half of which should be zero-emission. The government has made a positive start by announcing a pilot project in Gozo, where eight electric buses are expected to be implemented in 2020.

The cost gap between electric buses and their diesel counterparts is narrowing and there are also generous subsidies available. For example, the EU Cohesion Fund recently allocated €41 million to the purchase of 130 electric buses for Warsaw. Once the infrastructure is in place, it is cheaper to power buses with electricity than diesel and electricity prices are generally much more stable.

Excellent progress has already been made in revamping Malta’s road network and the country is perfectly suited to an electric upgrade with its potential for solar charging and short distances, which means range anxiety is not an issue. It would be possible to start to implement an electric bus fleet within three to five years and we could do it sustainably by gradually introducing electric models on to our historic tourist routes in tandem with our existing fleet.

Buses are, of course, not the only answer. We do need a multi-modal system incorporating a metro or light rail. But this will take time – we’ve heard that Malta’s metro could take a quarter of a century to be realised.

Technology is ever-evolving and we must strive to get ahead of the curve. Buses will always complement other methods within a wider framework and the bus network can be evolved, for example, by introducing a bus rapid transport system on to the proposed dedicated bus lanes of our much-needed Central Link project.

Electric bicycles and shared electric cars would also complement electric buses as part of a holistic system, along with smaller electric shuttles for our narrow urban lanes in our characteristic villages.

In transforming transport in Malta, we need to be ambitious but play to our strengths. Let us build on the foundations of one of our greatest cultural icons, the Maltese bus, and transport it into the future by reimagining it as an electric vehicle.

Let us have a fleet that makes us proud to be Maltese and is the envy of other cities around the world. Let’s add some colour and joy back on to our roads and let us lead the charge in Europe towards an emission-free future.

Jonathan Mizzi is the director of Mizzi Studio, an award-winning architecture, interior and industrial design studio with studios in London and Valletta.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece