Driving around Malta can be a formidable challenge, characterised by frayed tempers, lack of courtesy, inevitable diversions, frequent delays and, in the larger scheme of things, the imposition of increasingly unaffordable costs on the country.

In the latest country report on Malta, the European Commission says that the so-called external costs of transport amount to about €400 million per year, or 3.6 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product, estimated in terms of congestion, noise, air pollution and increased greenhouse emissions. People stuck in traffic would tend to look at the problem in terms of personal costs: heightened stress, lost time and breathing in polluted air for extended periods.

The commission’s report states the obvious when it argues: “Traffic congestion remains a key challenge, given the high reliance on private cars. The lack of soft mobility infrastructure (such as pavements and cycling lanes) discourages the use of alternative modes of transport and exacerbates congestion in Malta.”

Admittedly, public transport has improved over the last few years and is still cheap, soon to cost commuters nothing at all. Understanding the primary reasons why it has not seemed to reduce traffic congestion is easy.

Buses are not always efficient or reliable enough to replace the private car. The bus service has not kept up with the drastically increased demand from imported workers, let alone taking locals out of their vehicles.

Efficient public transport, without its own dedicated lanes, is hampered by the very road conditions that make travelling by car such a nightmare. Slow-moving heavy vehicles, often overloaded with building material, hinder the steady flow of traffic. The loading and unloading of commercial vehicles block roads everywhere. Cranes and concrete mixers take up precious space on busy thoroughfares. Traffic management enforcers are spread too thinly, often not there when you need them.

Among the improvements needed is a higher bus frequency on popular routes, to avoid people being packed in forcing the driver to whizz past bus stops. Commuters also need to know they can trust the next bus to turn up at the time the stipulated schedule.

The fleet ideally needs to be upgraded to electric as soon as possible, for a cleaner, quieter, more pleasant ride. Public transport needs to lead the way in this respect.

The government has proposed building a metro system as a way to ease the economic and environmental pressures caused by increasing traffic congestion. Even if the financial feasibility of this project were to be established, it will take many years to complete. The metro seems more likely to become a white elephant, rolled out in a blaze of publicity for a vote-hungry government and shelved forever more.

In the short term, improving the public transport system remains the most effective strategy to reduce the national costs of traffic congestion. Getting more people on to the buses – once they have become more efficient – may require a stick rather than the carrot of free passage: increasing the financial burden on those who insist on using private transport all the time.

In any case, current rising fuel costs cannot be absorbed for much longer by the government.

Rather than following the mirage of a metro system, public transport needs to be re-engineered. The bus service has come a long way over the years but there is much that can be improved to make it a first-choice commuting option. Ideally, taking a bus must become a time and cost-saving exercise that beats getting into a car.