Various attempts have been made in the past 15 years to relieve our roads from increasing traffic congestion. The main thrust of policymakers was attempts to modernise the public transport service.
The Arriva and the Malta Public Transport companies improved the roadworthiness of buses but failed to upgrade efficiency to the desired level. Today, the traffic congestion phenomenon is a nightmare for road users.
The recent convention organised by iGaming company Sigma exposed the utter failure of traffic policymakers to manage our road networks effectively and save motorists from continuous frustration. Still, policymakers’ proposals for improvement remain nebulous.
Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia says “there are plans to have the event at the same place (Marsa) but there is a lot of homework to be done”. This ‘homework’ will include administrative measures like having a later opening for the mass event and asking delegates to travel ‘more compactly’.
Opposition shadow minister for transport Adrian Delia made a comprehensive list of the government’s scandals, failures and U-turns on the management of the transport system. He argues: “the government did not just close one or two eyes to the serious (driving test) scandal. It actually blessed it.” Failure to make public transport effective and flooding roads with e-scooters and Y-plate private taxis are indeed some of the symptoms of failed planning.
The long-term proposal to introduce a more efficient mass transport system, like a metro or a tram system, is just blue-sky thinking. Politicians gloss over economic and operational viability challenges, hoping that the public will see a ray of hope for improvement in the coming years.
The public debate on how best to deal with the gridlock on our roads often revolves around administrative measures that could be taken to ease pressure, especially in peak hours. Admittedly, such measures could make a positive impact in the short term. For instance, Malta Public Transport could revise its bus schedules in different areas to ensure that towns that are not well served at present could experience some improvements.
Still, the elephant in the room when the debate on traffic congestion heats up is the absence of discussion on the capacity limitations on our roads. More investment in building new roads may relieve congestion in some gridlock hotspots only to transfer this congestion further down the road.
It is time for policymakers to start discussing ways of reducing the number of cars on the roads.
As long as the country’s economic model remains based on increasing production by importing labour, pressure on the road network will continue to grow. The government refuses to bite the bullet of economic strategy reform to stimulate growth through investment in human capital and technology-led economic activities.
Kicking the can down the road will only make the inevitable reform much more painful when the country’s physical infrastructure reaches breaking point.
The ‘Waiting for Godot’ mindset of the government will not solve the traffic chaos on our roads.
Neither will it bring about the changes needed to fulfil the aspiration of making our economy more value-added-oriented.
Political rhetoric may convince some people that they have never had it so good for so long. But it does not convince the majority of people who have to cope with the increasing pressures on their lives because of mediocre leadership that cannot even prevent the nightmare of traffic congestion.