The shadow minister for transport, Adrian Delia, said on Wednesday that young people should be given incentives not to start driving immediately they turn 18.

He also questioned whether the time had come for the authorities to raise the minimum driving age to 21 and to start charging for on-street parking.

Delia was speaking from the floor at a conference hosted by Times of Malta on the theme The Road to Reliable Public Transport.

He said that the government had failed to consider the implications of boosting the population through foreign workers in order to grow the economy. The traffic problem was a direct result of that decision.

The price people were not paying to drive their cars was instead being paid to address the health problems including the negative impact on mental health that traffic congestion was causing them.

In the short term, Delia said, the government should schedule the operation time of industrial vehicles, improve bus and bike lanes and encourage work from home, starting from the public sector.

“We saw during the pandemic that this is effective in reducing traffic. It’s free, it’s better for mental health and the environment and it can be achieved now,” he said.

Young people, he added, should also be given incentives not to use a car. “Yes, it's true that we love our cars and it's hard to wean off if you already have one. But if you’ve never bought a car it will be much easier,” he said.

Was it time for the authorities to consider raising the driving licence age to 21? That would win another three years from every future commuter, he added.

Echoing the view of several conference participants, Delia said that in the long term, paid on-street parking must also be seriously considered.