Plans for new Paceville road junction 'extremely concerning' - Graffitti

Initial plans and renders for a new road junction in Paceville are extremely concerning as they reflect another car-centric project that will not alleviate traffic in the long term, civil society group Graffitti said.

In a statement on Thursday, Moviment Graffitti called for Infrastructure Malta's plans for the junction, at the intersection between Swieqi and St Julian’s, to be sent back to the drawing board.

"This project, worth between €40 and €50 million in public funds, seems to be yet another car-centric project that will neither alleviate traffic in the long term, nor cater for the needs of anyone except car users," it said.

It noted that the plans did not seem to include bus lanes and had very limited connections for pedestrians and cyclists.

"Given that four lanes of the project are dedicated almost exclusively to cars, space is clearly not the issue," Graffitti said.

When Infrastructure Malta announced plans for the junction earlier in February, it said the new junction will facilitate access to St Julian's and Swieqi.

In August last year, it had said it had plans for flyovers to replace the traffic lights at the junction.

Graffitti noted on Thursday that only about 52% of Malta's total population has a Maltese driving licence. This meant that such a car-centric project only caters for about half the population.

"Our current transport model is not only incredibly inefficient, but also grossly unjust, prioritising cars over all other means of transport, and so the needs of some people over others.

"It is completely unacceptable that these plans seem to make no provisions for those reliant on public transport, and very little provisions for pedestrians and cyclists," Graffitti insisted.

This infrastructure, it said, is partly intended to cater to the traffic demands of new developments in the area.

These included Joseph Portelli’s Mercury Tower and the PX Lettings’ tower – both of which are in the immediate vicinity – as well as the DB project on the former ITS site and Garnet Investments Limited’s proposed mega-development on the Villa Rosa site.

This meant that infrastructure that ultimately serves the profits of property speculators was being financed using public funds.

"The government should not be beholden to business interests and their traffic woes, and paying taxpayer's money to accommodate their profits is obscene.

"We urge the authorities to redesign the project by taking into consideration questions of justice and equity.

"The project in its current form does not look towards the future, but effectively towards the past, based on an outdated approach to traffic management and a car-centric vision that does not take public or active transport into account," it said.

Graffitti asked why, after so many major road projects and traffic still at a stand-still, the government kept pursuing the same expensive, failed solutions.

Major projects at Marsa, Kappara and elsewhere have only functioned to create more demand for cars or shifted bottlenecks elsewhere.

"An effective approach to traffic management requires a break with this strategy in favour of prioritising other means of transport, namely public transport, but also walking and cycling.

"We hope that any consultation taking place listens to people's concerns and suggestions and takes them seriously into account," Graffitti said.