The school year has started and so has the traffic congestion associated with it. Someone at the Education Department suggested that school should start earlier so there would be less congestion! It seems that this unwise idea rightly did not catch on with the popularity ratings, as students, teachers and lecturers would have to wake up at 5am. Is it possible that the government can do nothing to ease the traffic congestion on our streets? In Greece, the state only allows cars ending in odd or even numbers out on the street on alternate days. Of course this does not work either because everyone has two number plates or two cars with different odd/even registration plates! Is it possible that the great minds of the state can do nothing to mitigate the current situation?

Here are a few of my suggestions. First there must be no elective maintenance work done on arterial roads during rush hour times. Reducing a two-lane road like the Hamrun Bypass, to one lane even for a short period of time so someone can clean it, repair it, light it or whatever, is immediately courting long car queues. Keep work here to off-peak times or even at night if necessary. During the whole of summer, Sir Paul Boffa Avenue in Paola was intact. Now it has been dug up and reduced to a one-lane street just in time for MCAST's 10,000 students returning to their Alma Mater. Does one expect that there won't be long queues here and in Aldo Moro Road and students turning up late for lectures at 8am?

Second, there should be a rationalization process of heavy traffic and roundabouts. Having three or four bus stops near a roundabout means that when a bus stops to let down or take on passengers, all the connecting traffic stops. Case in point is the Fleur-de-Lys roundabout. It would make more sense to move some bus stops further away. Third, the main highway areas have to be kept clear with traffic moving during rush hours. As soon as there is a minor incident or accident, traffic piles up immediately. Personnel (TM, wardens and police) have to be dispatched on these main arterial roads to keep traffic moving and deal with any accidents immediately on the spot, especially if they are minor ones. Alternate routes for the main thoroughfares have to be mapped out and radio or signage used to alert oncoming traffic to problem spots.

Fourth, construction cranes, trucks and works obstructing the main roads in cities and towns, need to be discouraged during peak traffic flow hours. There may be several ways to do this. Fifth, some local councils have given a free hand to drivers in their area and dispensed with traffic wardens completely resulting in a complete mess made up of bad parking, double parking, parking on traffic lights and other calamities which invariably slows traffic down especially in the big towns. Now I know this is done so that some heads of local councils appear nice with their voters and dispense with parking tickets and so on, but the first reason why any authority exists is order. Where disorder exists, there is a manifest failure of authority in that particular area and the council would have failed in one of its prime duties. Police should step in where local councils are failing with their traffic management duties. Such local councils should be publicly named for their lack of responsibility. Fifth, one should manage traffic by thinking ahead and diverting traffic through lesser frequented routes which may be longer in distance but shorter time-wise. Parking should be given extreme importance as there is very little of it available and all parking areas rationalized. There are too many unjustified reserved or no parking areas which are causing double parking and congestion in busy areas.

Sixth, give incentives to people to use public transport at certain times of the day when traffic is at its worst, and encourage parents to use school transport or pool cars to and from schools rather than their own vehicles. Seventh, it is important to get a national conference going involving all parties on the subject of transport and its problems so that learned and qualified people can put their heads together and get to the bottom of the problem. The construction of good quality roads also needs to be given more importance. Eight, there must be many other solutions at hand but the transport Ministry has to be more cephalic and pro-active than it has been till now. It is currently manifest by its absence and lack of fervour to say the least. It is important that the state devotes more energy and money to this problem of transport as it is posed to consume our time, money and economical prowess, as the wheels of our travel modes are forced to grind to a frustrating halt!

 

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