Overcrowding and perception

If you’ve been following me for a while, then you’ve probably heard me mention my favourite traffic-related line but for the sake of any newbies and just because after 12 years I’m still incredulous that it was said, I’m going to repeat it again.

On a cold October day in 2014, while many of us were probably huffing and puffing in traffic, a television broadcast took place where a Transport Malta official boldly went where no one should have gone and said that “traffic is a perception”.

This line had remained a firm favourite of mine in my personal hall of ridiculousness but I think this week it may have been topped by Minister Chris Bonett telling parliament that, across 2024 and 2025, only a single public transport bus was recorded as overcrowded. And for those who can’t believe what they’ve just read, no, those weren’t magic mushrooms in your risotto.

I mean this with no disrespect but who was doing the reported 52,000 bus inspections over 2024 and 2025? Were they living in the same country as I am? I, myself, have taken the bus a handful of times in the last two years, and each and every time I got on the blessed thing I felt like I was boarding a cattle train to get to market to be sold to the highest bidder.

I felt like I was boarding a cattle train to get to market to be sold to the highest bidder- Anna Marie Galea

Once I tried boarding it from Msida and it was so packed that I was practically sitting on the driver’s lap. To his credit, Minister Bonett did say that he was “not happy” with the statistic presented to him and that it “does not add up” but, honestly, how did it take a parliamentary question for this ridiculous number to be questioned?

I’ve spoken to multiple people who take the bus regularly over the last week and all of them said the same thing: it didn’t matter where and when they took the bus; at one point or another, it was always overcrowded. One of my friends who doesn’t drive and suffers from claustrophobia even went as far as telling me that at times he spends around €50 a day to get around by taxi because he can’t face being pressed into by piles of standing bodies and has developed a fear of being crushed.

I’ll say it again and louder this time: this country is not evolving and changing quickly enough for the reality that it is experiencing. Our population has exploded over the last few years and nothing is being done to cater for the way the country is being shaped. If our buses are full to the brim, then it doesn’t take an inspector or a statistician to tell you that you need more buses going to more locations concurrently. In addition to this, if you want more people to take the bus and lessen the amount of cars on the road, then the best way to encourage them to do so is to make the bus ride a pleasant one and not make commuters feel like they are on safari.

We are not in the same Malta as 2014 when traffic was allegedly nothing more than a perception; we are not even in the same Malta as 2024. It doesn’t take an opinion writer to say this, just someone with a pair of eyes and a bus pass.