Traffic will keep increasing for as long as planners design road infrastructure around cars, the green party has argued.

ADPD Chairperson Sandra Gauci and the party’s local council candidate for Pietà, Janet Zahra Walker, made that point during a press conference close to St Luke’s Hospital on Saturday.

Aside from the now-abandoned hospital, the area hosts an ortophaedic centre, Karin Grech rehabilitation hospital, Pharmacy of Your Choice offices and is close to a primary school.

Zahra Walker highlighted the lack of pavements and walkways in the area – an area used by children aged three to 11.

“The fact that no pavement near the school has been contemplated shows serious lack of consideration for the safety of our children. During school rush hours, the street is not even closed to traffic, which poses serious dangers. We feel that people, especially children, deserve better,” Zahra Walker said.

Gauci pointed to one of the biggest road projects of the upcoming years as an example of misguided planning. The Msida flyover project, Gauci said, looks ambitious at first glance but is in reality “nothing more than yet another glorified monument to cars.”

ADPD representatives speaking on Saturday. Photo: ADPD

“As we have seen from other road projects, the intended solutions failed as traffic jams remain and will remain, unless we have serious policies, aimed to incentivise other more sustainable alternative modes of transport, including public transport,” she said.

Although cycle lanes and pedestrian paths were included in the plans, these appeared to have been an afterthought, Gauci added.

“This is an area where people commute on foot, which is positive, and which must be given due importance and respect. Projects of such magnitude are wrong, even on paper, as they put cars at the centre and not people. With this mentality traffic will keep increasing,” ended Gauci.