The Msida Creek flyover project will simply encourage people to use their cars more rather than public transport or other means of getting around, the Green Party has predicted.
ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said that the project, which kicked off this week, will also discourage people from walking.
“The aim of this project is traffic management, which in reality is to make things easier for cars. This means that cars are being given priority over people and their quality of life,” Gauci said.
She added: “The solution to traffic reduction, namely a reduction of car use, is creating the infrastructure that accommodates a variety of transport means. You cannot just come up with a flyover to accommodate the influx of cars to the detriment of those who prefer to travel on foot.”
Gauci noted that an alternative proposal made by the Chamber of Architects was discarded by Infrastructure Malta as having come “too late” in the process to be considered.
“The important thing is that we give the impression that we are working, that there are jobs, and that something is being done. But whether that job is being done well or not is of little concern to those who are in power,” the green party chairperson said.
Gauci said a 2050 Transport Masterplan and 2050 transport strategy feature many positive proposals “on paper” but that very few of them have materialised.
Stipulations about providing transport alternatives to cars were a case in point, she said.
“When you embark on a project of this nature and ignore your own masterplan, you are really showing that there is no plan to actually do what needs to be done, and such plans are being adopted to benefit the pocket of the few at the expense of the residents and the Treasury.”
“Why are we wasting time and public money on these studies and masterplans when we eventually go back to the old ways of doing things?”
ADPD Secretary General Ralph Cassar said massive project like that at Msida Creek were useless if they did not place people at their centre.
“Budget incentives to encourage people to rely less on private care use are useless when planned infrastructure will actually encourage the opposite,” he said. “The average distances travelled in Malta are just a measly 5.5km, and still government persists in encouraging congestion and pollution instead of people friendly streets.“
Cassar said the government was ignoring its own Transport masterplan for 2025.
Published in 2016, that masterplan emphasised the importance of providing road space for buses and cycling routes while warning that traffic congestion was poised to increase over time.
“What a waste of money!” Cassar said of the masterplan. “It is clear that government has ignored the spirit and letter of the plan, which expires next year. Shame.”