Motorbike riders, ferry users and cyclists were unaffected by Monday's standstill traffic, as drivers fumed over the significant delays.
Heavy traffic was reported all over Malta on Monday morning as kindergartens and post-secondary and tertiary education colleges reopened their doors for the new scholastic year.
It took one motorist two hours to get from Żabbar to Valletta, moving at a snail’s pace of 3.15 km/hr on average.
Marsascala-based Roberta Xerri needed an hour and 20 minutes to get to her job as a primary school teacher in St Julian’s, leaving home at 7am and arriving at 8.20am.
But for some commuters, it was a breeze getting to work. Among them was motorcycle rider Omar Rabbah who needed only 10 minutes to get to Ħamrun from St Julian’s on his 125cc automatic motorcycle.
He has described ditching his vehicle “as one of the best decisions of my life”.
Cyclo-commuters, too, arrived at their destinations without delay.
Paolo Cassar Manghi, a 25-year-old architect, said he made it from Safi to his office in Sliema within 45 minutes.
Cassar Manghi rides his e-bike or bicycle at a leisurely pace and it gives him a low-intensity workout, which he otherwise would not do, he said.
He often takes detours “to enjoy scenic routes on the way back,” he added.
Robert Decelis got to his job at Mater Dei Hospital by combining the Three Cities-Valletta ferry with cycling.
He first rode from his Kalkara home to Cospicua. “I then used the ferry to reach Valletta and cycled the rest of the way,” the 42-year-old medical laboratory scientist said.
The whole trip took Decelis 40 minutes to cover.
Car-centric challenges
However, Żebbuġ local councillor and mobility activist Steve Zammit Lupi said even though the car is no longer an efficient means of transport, the car-centric design of Maltese roads does not cater for the needs or safety of other potential road users.
Researcher and mobility expert Maria Attard concurred, saying there was a lack of infrastructure for alternative means of transport.
“Just as we find space for cars, we can find space for cyclists,” the director of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development said.
“This should be a principle we should not have to negotiate about… it’s a matter of equity.”
Attard said that a significant percentage of the population would be interested in cycling to work or for errands but was concerned about their safety on the road.
As another way of beating the traffic on the roads, some professionals opted to work from home on Monday.
Dillon Mercieca, a 28-year-old working in the gaming industry, said his company’s hybrid work policy allows him to avoid traffic altogether by either working from home or going to his workplace later in the day.
Charles Cassar, founder of Shoulder Compliance, has a work-from-home policy at his company.
“This means that we avoid rush hour and the stress and time wasting that it entails. For staff who are parents it means that they can juggle work and family commitments a lot more effectively,” he said.
“We still meet regularly at the office but having flexibility times means we can get the best out of the office environment while avoiding the downsides,” Cassar added.