Equitable cycling infrastructure revision

While the transport minister loads the blame onto scooter users, the operators etc. and anyone but the government or its many facetted entities, it is an inescapable truth that a failure by both the Labour governments and the Nationalists before them to deliver on a national cycling policy and the required infrastructure is a deep-seated root cause.

While it seemed impossible for all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, the transport ministry, Transport Malta, Infrastructure Malta, the regional and local councils and the operators to draw a simple white box around the Humpty Dumpty of e-scooter parking (as we did for cars many years ago), it is telling of the fractured way our land transport is managed.

One silver lining is a long-awaited revision of the cycling infrastructure. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

However, one silver lining is a long-awaited revision of our cycling infrastructure, hopefully expanded to all active mobility infrastructure, and all due credit that this is now under review. It is somewhat ironic that this is the exact same infrastructure that footscooters needed to avoid abusing one-ways and arterial roads etc.... and even parking. But all this has been known for decades and, again, it is a huge well done for taking the bull by the horns but the national cycling strategy and national cycling route network must not be watered down by the same fractured Humpty-Dumpty governance.

Stay firm.

As the minister pointed out, scooters did not result in fewer people driving and, therefore, might not be the car reduction carrot we needed. That is a shame as we might need something more draconian in the future. Let’s not forget Paris has cleared out 50 per cent of its on-street parking and is set to charge more for larger SUVs and 4x4s. Neither did Paris go for a complete rental ban, as many think, but a ban on “free floating” dockless rentals.

Paris might not be such a bed of roses, after all. Although, it must be said, tiny Gibraltar did the smartest thing. Gibraltarians looked at what mistakes other states made and avoided them.

That aside, like most people, I am looking forward to clearer pavements. I am also hopeful of a complete ban on any type of pavement parking so that what little narrow pavements we have really are clear. Again, good to hear movement on the national cycling strategy and the NCRS.

Stay firm.

Jim Wightman – independent cycle commuter, St Julian’s

A fulfilled life

In his article on life as “a spiritual enterprise”, David Marinelli wrote that “being secular is incomplete”.

I have lived a secular life since I quit the Catholic Church 60 years ago. By doing so, I don’t feel “incomplete” at all. On the contrary, I feel very much fulfilled because I’ve been true to myself; because I’ve cultivated a rich inner life through literature, classical music and art; and because I’ve been fortunate enough to lead the life I wanted to live. 

Marinelli described the Ten Commandments as “God-given”. Since time immemorial, crafty priests have “told the people that the local code of morals and laws have been dictated by the gods: that the god Thoth gave laws to Menes for Egypt, the god Shamash gave Hammurabi a code for Babylonia  and that the divine nymph Egeria gave Numa Pompilius laws for Rome” (Will Durant, The Lessons of History).

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s