Driving in Malta during the day has become an absolute nightmare. Unless the schools are off for holidays, you can expect to sit fuming in traffic for up to an hour to make the simplest of commutes.

Every time there is an accident, the whole system just jams up. Perhaps the main reason for this is that our own version of a highway (Regional Road) does not have any hard shoulder for people to pull into if they have an accident or a car breaks down. There have been instances where a car has stopped in the Santa Venera tunnels and brought the island to complete gridlock. Thankfully, the new roads which are being built to feature hard shoulders and cambers. Another monumental discovery was the practice of laying pipes and wires at the sides of the roads to allow workers to do their job without having to cause a traffic jam.

But it is clear that something has got to give. Rather than improving, the situation actually seems to be getting worse. Every morning, it’s the same old story. People trying to get to work on time, sat in frustration as traffic inches forwards to our (many) roundabouts that seem to slow traffic down rather than speed up flow.

The government has embarked on numerous projects to try and alleviate the situation. The jury is still out because people do accept that projects need to be completed (such as the Coast Road) before the benefit can be felt. There has also been an improvement in the thought process of how traffic flow is managed when there are roadworks, and the practices of the works are carried out.

But as things stand, people immediately start to perform U-turns when they see traffic backed up in, for example, Marsa, Zebbug, Attard and Mosta, seeking alternative routes which causes even more congestion in more areas.

It is clear that one of the main problems is that we have far too many cars on our roads, which are far too narrow. When this is coupled with the fact that we have no decent mass transit system – such as an underground or overhead rail network – the result is bedlam.

Perhaps we really need to rethink the whole roundabout system. We are opting for a flyover in Kappara, which should really make a difference to traffic flow and commute times. But we should also look at the Brussels underpass methods where traffic criss-crosses. It is also easier for conserving space, because a dip is just hollowed out under one road to allow another to pass underneath it.

Malta is going to have a traffic problem for the foreseeable future. And unless we come up with some radical solutions, traffic is going to continue to impact negatively on people’s lives. It also has an effect on businesses because delivery vans and trips for meetings eat away into productivity every single day.

The current state of affairs cannot go on. Car pooling initiatives have fallen flat on their face, as have incentives to get people to consider other forms of transportation such as cycling to work. You’d be taking your life in your hands if you attempted that each morning. This is not a perception. This is real. With the summer approaching, road rage incidents will increase as tempers fray in the heat.