Adapting to incompetent design

In response to Anna Chetcuti’s letter ‘Driving wrong way’ (November 19), many cities all around mainland Europe provide exemptions called “bicycle contraflows” in urban one-way streets, warning drivers in advance to expect oncoming bicycles as that street is one-way except for bicycles. Actually, they see it the other way round, a two-way street except for motorised traffic.

Not a single town and village in Malta, or, in this case, Sliema, was designed with cyclists in mind – now also e-scooters. The one-way system was entirely meant for the accommodation of car parking boxes stealing precious public space. It is finally a breath of fresh air that Annunciation Square, a gem in the heart of Sliema currently degraded as a parking lot, is being considered for pedestrianisation.

There are no right or wrong ways for bikes in Europe: contraflows improve safety and also permeability of the road network. To simply get around Sliema by bicycle, instead of being facilitated with direct and flat cycle routes through town, the one-way system forces you through a maze of painful unintuitive detours that were meant for residential parking and to prevent any other form of car through-traffic. It also means going up and down several steep hills numerous times. Don’t we usually use hills as an excuse against cycling in Malta, so why force more of them?

In parts, the one-way system also spits you out into dangerous intersections of a main road, just to get back inside again. You also get automatically exposed to tailgating, in the process of following the identical car route, especially while riding up.

Therefore, contraflowing is not only safer to the cyclist but also beneficial to car movement that does need to be always ‘held up’ for the entire way by ‘slower’ cyclists.

Hop on your bike; anyone will immediately realise how very difficult, physically and also mentally, and dangerous, one-way streets can be for a human-powered bicycle. I am not advocating for exemptions on all one-way streets but many streets need to be selected for proper contraflow signages in every town. The next time you see people by bike or scooters going contraflow, it is not law-breaking in my book, it is adaptation to incompetent design. Micromobility forms of transport are one of the many solutions to today’s traffic issues.

Paolo Cassar Manghi, architecture and urban design master’s student – Safi

Complicity

United we stand, divided we fall is a commendable attitude. But not when ‘unity’ covers up sleaze, fraud and corruption. Then it becomes complicity.

Carmel Sciberras – Naxxar

The true success in swimming

The national pool at Tal-Qroqq. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

When one thinks about being successful in swimming, winning medals and breaking records easily come to mind. However, on a national level, the key success factor in any sport is the degree of active participation by the public.

Indeed, the first part of the first objective of SportMalta in the Sports Act is to “promote and encourage the development of increased participation in sport in Malta…” It is important the authorities keep this in mind.

They should endeavour to make the sport of swimming accessible to all the public, young and old, disabled or otherwise, especially since the availability of public lap pools in Malta is very limited.

Swimming would truly be successful in Malta when the national pool would be open to the public after 3pm and there would be an appropriate number of swimming lanes available to the public.

National teams and swimming clubs should be supported but not at the expense of severely restricting access of swimming facilities to the public.

Paul Pace Ross – Sliema