When you are in a strange, new part of the world and looking for a destination, it helps to have a map or road signs to point the way.

That is how Malta needs to consider the recommendations on emissions and traffic congestion included in the country report recently published by the European Commission.

Before working out where you’re headed, though, it helps to know where you are.

The commission provides a troubling summary on that front.

“Greenhouse gas emissions from road transport have increased by 23.3% compared to 2005 levels,” it noted in its report. This can surprise nobody. Just look at the number of cars on the roads.

Here is another data point: “Passenger cars make up 86% of passenger transport in Malta.” And the number is increasing in an alarming fashion.

In the first quarter of 2024, Malta’s total stock of licensed vehicles increased by 831 as compared to the previous quarter, according to the National Statistics Office. Now, that figure covers all types of vehicles  but few will be shocked to learn that passenger cars dominate.

“The majority of newly licensed motor vehicles, 4,076, or 72.3% of the total, were passenger cars, followed by motorcycles/E-bikes/[pedal-assisted]-bikes with 734 or 13%,” the NSO said in May.

Maltese motorists are embracing electric cars but slowly. Of all the vehicles licensed from January to March, 58.2% were powered by petrol.

Think about that lost traveller in a foreign land. In our scenario, they have just performed a U-turn and driven (because, being Maltese, they are statistically most likely to be in a car) in the opposite direction from where they are headed.

In March, a government ban on rental e-scooters came into effect, putting an even greater distance between where Malta is and should be.

These factors inevitably contribute to the correlated problem of congestion.

The European Commission advances a familiar laundry list of possible mitigations, such as “increasing sustainable multimodal solutions and active transport”. That is bureaucrat speak for “helping people to ditch their car and use buses, harbour ferries, bicycles, or even their feet instead”.

This means, among other things, building more reserved bus lanes, so that, once you factor in the hassle of parking, it could take as little time to take public transport to work as it does to drive in your own car.

Passenger cars make up 86% of passenger transport in Malta- Peter Leonard

The government has been much too generous in marking its own homework when responding to the European Commission report. It claims it has promoted “alternative eco-friendly commuting options”. In the absence of actual options, though, this is a little like encouraging people to win the lottery as a way to balance their family budget. Plain mockery, in other words.

Implementation of a reliable inner-harbour ferry system is laudable but that is of little use to, say, a resident of Mosta commuting to Valletta or a student getting from Żejtun to the university.

Speaking with my Rota hat on, it would be remiss not to mention bicycle lanes, which have seen little of what the government says was the “significant investment… directed towards improving transportation infrastructure”. Those lanes are indispensable for persuading anybody nervous about occasionally (or often) to switch to a bike, e-bike or e-scooter.

And just to pre-empt the griping of certain motorists, there is no tension here between drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Active mobility improves the physical and mental welfare of those that practise it, while fewer cars on the road will reduce congestion and travel times.

None of this will happen by magic.

As Rota argued in a statement responding to European Commission recommendations, there needs to be a wider policy conversation before a coherent plan can be drawn up and enacted.

We stand ready to engage with the government in a collective effort to devise a strong cycling policy. And we believe Malta will find it very difficult to achieve goals set by the European Commission without the legal protections for pedestrians and cyclists enshrined in such provisions as presumed liability.

There truly are no excuses anymore. We know where we want to go and we have the information we need to get there.

All that is lacking is the will.

Peter Leonard is public outreach officer at Rota.