Activists are calling on transport authorities to redesign the Mġarr bypass to incorporate a segregated cycle lane after a series of accidents on Triq Sir Temi Żammit.
Should the authorities fail to act on this matter, it will lead to more deaths, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth Malta, and Rota said in a press release on Tuesday.
The three NGOs have written a second letter to Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia, Transport Malta CEO Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi and Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon demanding that a "safe, segregated cycle lane" be incorporated into the design of the road, following a collision between a car and a cyclist earlier this month.
Last June, Times of Malta reported how the cycle lane posed a credible danger to cyclists because at points it becomes too narrow and forces cyclists to rejoin traffic.
Rota president Daniel Vella had accompanied Times of Malta on a ride along the road to demonstrate the peril that cyclists using the bike lane face.
Shortly after this, in July, an accident saw a car sandwiched beneath another after a collision, prompting further criticism that a cyclist could have been crushed in the incident.
"Triq Sir Temi Żammit was given a so-called “safety upgrade” in 2021, which the organisations are insisting has made the road less safe for diverse road users. It has been criticised for its unusable cycle lane since its inauguration, with Minister Aaron Farrugia facing fresh calls to redesign it last summer, when two speeding cars collided on the cycle lane," the groups said.
Instead of taking calls for a serious rethink of transport infrastructure authorities have responded by highlighting their work on strategy documents, which, they said, misses the wood for the trees.
"Publishing strategies is not enough when their actions on the ground - road widening projects, overpasses, insufficient pedestrian access, and unsafe cycling infrastructure - are supporting further car dependency at the cost of all other means."
"The direct result of the authorities’ actions has been the incessantly increasing rate of injuries and deaths on our roads"
"The ministry’s inaction over inadequate past projects is also costing people’s lives and health - the accident involving a cyclist on Triq Sir Temi Żammit earlier this month would have been avoided had Infrastructure Malta conceded to redesign this road when faced with the public outcry."
The organisations are calling on authorities to "urgently" redesign the road and to publish a legally binding policy document with national standards for cycling and pedestrian infrastructure to ensure that in the future public funds are not wasted on "the creation of substandard and dangerous infrastructure".