It is indeed a tricky question. The government has floated the idea that school hours could be shifted around in an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion.

It has been mentioned as an open idea, just floated to gauge what could come out of it. Whether or not shifting school hours around to stagger the opening times would result in less road congestion is anyone's guess, but at least it is being talked about.

Malta comes to an absolute standstill on weekday mornings as workers make their way to their place of work and parents do the school runs to take their children to school. Some people do both in one. But the practice has led to 12-15km journeys taking an hour or more to complete. Given that there are so many road projects on the go, the situation is compounded further. The government has announced other measures to alleviate congestion, such as car pooling priority lanes, rebates for using school transport and more.

But this idea is one that is worthy of exploring. When one floats any type of idea, discussion ensues. It might be the case that the idea will end up being shot down. But one is sure that other ideas will crop up.

But perhaps more focus is needed on encouraging parents to send their children to school on transport provided by schools is needed. And, perhaps, we might also try and foster a culture where the older secondary school children can (if viable) walk, or catch public transport through special discount schemes. The issue is brought up by the Malta Union of Teachers in this edition, where they say that practically every modern European country has schemes for students to use public transport.

But to do that, we need an efficient and reliable public transport provider, for starters. The issue with shifting school hours is that it affects everyone concerned. In families where parents both work, what would they do if their children's school starting time got moved to 10am, for example? Parents cannot leave a five-year-old alone and expect them to get on school transport on their own. And the same holds true for later finishes, if one or both parents work shifts. School teachers and other staff would also see their hours moved and that will, no doubt, be met with resistance from the unions concerned.

There is no doubt that traffic management is a priority and the absolute gridlock that we face at various times of the day is impacting on our sanity, our mental health, our productivity and economic growth must be solved, one way or another. At least, we are talking about alternatives. But, we continue to ignore the ultimate solution - an underground mass transport system that would wean us all off our dependency on cars.