The scourge of traffic

The thrust of your editorial (July 21) about the need to discourage ever more traffic on our congested roads is sensible.

However, the enthusiasm for untrammelled and undisciplined use of e-scooters is unfortunate.

While cities ranging from Melbourne to Los Angeles have long discovered that you can never have enough tarmac for traffic to inevitably flood it and you’re back to where you started in terms of traffic congestion, Malta does not have the infrastructure to accommodate the mushrooming curse of scooters and the like.

They have become a menace to pedestrians (even a wide area such as the Sliema promenade has become an obstacle course) and an unwelcome added hazard for drivers negotiating narrow roads. They are parked haphazardly, other drivers stop whenever they feel like.

It is absolutely necessary to fine “left right and centre” to make sure that e-scooter users are at least governed by some sort of enforced decency. What Malta needs is to address its love affair with the car and encourage less car use, absolutely compensated for by excellent public transport. This should not be impossible to implement.

What Malta needs is to address its love affair with the car and encourage less car use, absolutely compensated for by excellent public transport. This should not be impossible to implement.

As usual, it is stymied by too much vested interest rather than doing the right thing for the country.

Anna Micallef – Sliema

Haphazard ‘parking’ 

I am a wheelchair user and, as this photo shows, people using these new electric powered scooters don’t care where and how they park them.

This is disgusting.

This happened to me a few days ago when I tried to enter a supermarket at Qawra. Two Bolt scooters were left parked right in the middle of the only accessible entrance, blocking access.

I reported this to the Qawra police station and they were very helpful and a policeman moved them away for me, clearing away the scooters. I was informed that they would get in touch with the concerned company that rents them,  that is, Bolt.

I appeal to people making use of these scooters to be aware where they park their scooters. They are even parked in the middle of a pavement or pedestrian zone.

Tonio Mercieca – Qawra

What a shame!

Have the police traced those brave Maltese who threw that black bloke into the sea in Gozo?

Ashamed to be Maltese.

Joseph Sammut – Loughton, Essex

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