With traffic congestion being a particular thorn in the side of the Maltese public, the Transport Ministry has finally published the Transport Master Plan for public consultation.
The Master Plan sets the framework and overall priorities that will guide investment in air, sea and land transport sectors over the next 10 years. It will identify where funds from national, European Union and other financing sources can most effectively be invested in the country’s transport system in order to help achieve long-range strategic targets. The Plan will serve to guide transport’s contribution to the physical, environmental, social and economic development of Malta, while focusing on delivering a safer, secure, more sustainable and healthier transport system over the short-to-medium term.
The Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis identified the strengths of the road transport sector on the island, highlighting, among other things, that Malta has a good record in road safety and a strong commitment to the deployment of intelligent transport systems.
As for the weaknesses of the sector, a deep-rooted, car-oriented culture, one of the highest road-traffic densities in Europe and poor discipline were some of the issues highlighted.
A number of threats to the sector were also identified, including a steady and continuous economic growth that could lead to an increase in car ownership, pronounced morning peak hours handling over 11 per cent of daily traffic, possible flooding due to climate change and the lack of a comprehensive strategy for parking management.
In Malta, 83 per cent of vehicular traffic is generated by the use of private cars during a typical weekday. The Plan also referred to the fact that in 2013, 66 per cent of all licensed vehicles were more than 10 years old and only four per cent of vehicles were less than two years old. “Recent trends do not appear to be favourable, with the age of the average motor vehicle increasing from 13.8 in 2010 to 14.7 in 2015” it said. “The average passenger car age is currently 13.89, which is significantly higher than the European Union average of 8.6 years.”
Shortage of qualified and experienced transport planners
There is also a general shortage of qualified and experienced transport planners, road engineers and traffic management and traffic signal control specialists in both the public and private sectors. The Master Plan says: “This is linked to the lack of local specialised educational programmes being made available in transportation and few long-term career opportunities”.
Parking
The Plan states that the distribution of public and private car parking is highly fragmented across Malta and many areas lack purpose-built parking infrastructure of any sort. “Also, very few managed parking facilities are provided within a convenient walking distance to the main urban and commercial agglomerations. Parking supply is therefore mainly on-street and mostly unregulated, free of charge and operating on a first-come, first-served basis. The management of the supply of parking places for residents is inadequate. The continued increase in demand for on-street parking in residential areas often has a negative impact on traffic circulation through further narrowing of road carriageway and through the introduction of one-way systems which result in longer journeys. Additionally, the lack of space for road transport and lack of sufficient development control are also putting further pressure on the existing transport network. Integration of land use and on-street and off-street parking policy is lacking in practice”.
The plan also mentions that significant investment is currently being made to facilitate the provision of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in order to improve traffic management, safety and efficiency on existing strategic roads. “National Action Plans for the Deployment of ITS have recently been published which aim to build on experience gained over the last few years from operation of automatic vehicle location devices (and real time information) in the bus service, vehicle-activated road signs and the use of automatic number plate recognition equipment in the operation of speed cameras and access charging in Valletta. There is a focus and good political support for the wide-spread deployment of ITS in the current transport system (strength)”.
The Plan has indicated that the construction and reconstruction of road infrastructure requires significant coordination between Transport Malta, local councils and service utility entities for electricity, water, drainage and communications and agencies responsible for the preservation of heritage.
“Delays to the implementation of projects have occurred as a result of certain service utilities not having a clear understanding of where their buried services lie. Delays to the implementation of projects can also commonly occur when historically significant artefacts, buildings or structures are found during road excavations”.
The plan states that the establishment of a clear 10-year plan for road infrastructure investment will facilitate better integration and improved cooperation between entities and stakeholders at the planning stage (opportunity)”.
Operational objectives
A number of operational objectives relating to road transport were identified. The first highlights the need to improve integrated and long-term strategic transport planning and design and a number of measures were proposed in this regard. One such measure suggests the development of a framework with the spatial planning process to integrate land use and transport planning policies and move towards transit-oriented development.
This measure would aim to set up continuous discussions with the spatial planning process to move towards the centralisation and accessibility of facilities and to review transport and development planning policies in relation to a Principal Urban Area with a central hub. It would involve the reviewing and implementation of policies to integrate land use development and transport policy, particularly land use planning policies that favour public transport-oriented development. Location and the development of major employment and residential nodes need full integration with public transport networks, focusing on public transport corridors and in sync with the short, medium and long-term plans to develop the public transport system.
“It would critically assess whether planning gains are promoting sustainable mobility or whether they reinforce vehicular use. It would also require that the assessment of transport impact for development scenarios and the review of parking standards for new developments be carried out during the preparation of local plans and master plans.
“The concept of the double use of parking, whereby the same parking spaces would be used by offices or retail establishments during the day and by residents at night, could also be explored to retain accessibility by car for city functionality”.
A number of Master Plans for specific localities have been suggested.
The Mrieħel Master plan
The Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development envisages the re-designation of the Mriehel Industrial Area into an Enterprise Hub-Urban Regeneration Priority A. “This change of area designation will have significant impact on the land use composition, the size of the developments and ultimately on the levels of traffic generation. The Mriehel Industrial Area is currently characterised by low traffic generating activities such as factories, showrooms, warehousing and small and medium-sized industries but its re-designation in part to an Enterprise Hub will introduce a significant number of high traffic-generating activities during peak hours.
“The drawing up of a comprehensive Master Plan for the whole area will be needed.”
Master plan for Paceville and St Julian’s
“A number of new major developments (tourism, offices and residential) have been identified for the Paceville area, but without proper organisation of the area, these are likely to become high quality enclaves in an otherwise haphazard surrounding. With the current level of transport infrastructure provision and service, any major new land use development in the Paceville area will have significant traffic impacts that extend well beyond the Paceville area”.
“A comprehensive Master Plan for Paceville is required to establish the suitable carrying capacity to holistically define the traffic network. The preparation of this will involve testing of different land-use development scenarios, forecasting trip generation, assessing impacts on the transport network and the identification and programming of local transport measures (including parking standards, traffic management, public transport, park and ride and facilities for cycling and walking) to be implemented for the area.”
Master plan for Sliema
The Master Plan refers to the fact that, in recent years, there has been a substantial intensification of office, retail, tourism and residential development in and around the commercial centre of Sliema.
“This and other factors have contributed to the increased levels of traffic on the road network within the central area and to the high levels of conflict between traffic, parked vehicles, public transport and pedestrians along the waterfront roads.”
To accommodate increased on-street parking, most of the local roads in the area today are one-way.
“Off-street parking is mainly provided within the commercial centre rather than on the periphery, often exacerbating traffic congestion levels on the access roads leading to and inside the central area. At the current level of growth, by the year 2025, Tower Road and the Strand in Sliema will reach their practical operating capacities. The Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development envisages the designation of Sliema centre as a Business Hub. In this respect, a comprehensive Master Plan needs to be drawn up for Sliema to better integrate future land use development with sustainable transport growth and provision”.
Alternatives to private vehicle use
The Plan highlights the need to increase the use of alternative modes of transportation, rather than the use of private vehicle.
It recommends the use of awareness campaigns promoting the importance of and opportunities for cycling or walking for short trips as well as compliance with traffic rules to improve road safety for all road users.
Another measure would develop and incentivise schemes to promote smaller vehicles, multiple occupancy and reduce the need to travel during peak hours. “The concentration of travel into such a short period in the morning exerts enormous pressure on Malta’s road infrastructure. It is also costly both in terms of providing the necessary road infrastructure to remove the traffic bottlenecks and in terms of loss of economic productivity and higher operating costs resulting from congestion. Transport policy measures can be effectively used to incentivise commuters to either avoid driving their cars by eliminating the need to travel or by enticing car drivers to travel more efficiently during the peak periods.”
“Recently, there have been a number of important initiatives such as car sharing for travel to schools, policy guidance for flexi-hours and the promotion of teleworking by public sector employees, allowing high-occupancy private cars to use bus lanes and incentives to use low-powered motorcycles and scooters have been introduced at a national level. With technical guidance, promotion and careful monitoring of the operation of the impact of travel reduction and avoidance schemes, measures can be further refined and deployed at a wider level.” It recommends that the introduction of car-sharing could be piloted by the establishment of a national car-sharing service.
The master plan also aims at increasing the modal share of cycling through the development of a cycling strategy promoting cycling as not only a leisure activity but also as a credible, safe, alternative mode of transport for commuting. There would be an in-depth study to assess connectivity issues between and through urban areas in order to identify a cycling route network as well as design principles for the provision of bicycle-friendly streets.
“Bicycle sharing systems are increasingly popular in towns and cities around Europe and have the potential to increase the visibility of people cycling in everyday clothing. This may in turn help normalise the image of cycling and reduce perceptions that cycling is ‘risky’ or ‘only for sporty people’. Bicycle sharing schemes can provide car-driving workers with an alternative means of travelling to meetings within busy central areas without having to resort to using their cars, while tourists can hire bicycles to visit places around Malta. This measure will be piloted as a demonstration project within the framework of CIVITAS in which an e-Bike sharing system and management platform will be set up within the central and outer areas of Valletta.”
The plan also calls for the development of a comprehensive parking management system to create a better balance between off-street and on-street parking.
It also sets out measures to reduce the impact of high polluting vehicles in congested inner-urban areas and on the ten-t network. One such measure includes a study of the potential to introduce low emission zones in dense and polluted urban areas. “Low Emission Zones (LEZs) are normally introduced in areas where air pollution from vehicles is at a level that is dangerous to public health. They therefore regulate access to such areas by high-polluting vehicles. LEZs operate by either prohibiting vehicles with higher emissions from entering an area or by requiring the more polluting vehicles to pay more if they enter the zone.”
The Master Plan also seeks to improve road safety through better research, engineering, education and enforcement. “Poor driver behaviour and discipline contributes significantly to road safety issues. There is a compelling need to address illegal road user behaviour to improve driver discipline. This includes, in particular, drink-driving, driving under the influence of drugs, over speeding and the use of mobile phones while driving. As the National Road Safety Strategy aims to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries by 2020, significant work remains to be done.” One measure in this regard concerns ensuring safe and efficient traffic management.
Another aim is to improve the enforcement of road transport regulations through, for example, increasing the presence and effectiveness of traffic police; reviewing the speed camera system; increasing roadside checks and roadworthiness testing, reviewing enforcement fine levels etc.
Road-based public transportation
As for road-based public transport, the strengths highlighted include a clear and robust concession contract with the bus service operator, good organisation of bus repairs, cleaning and maintenance, fast boarding and a reduction of cash handling through a high uptake of pre-paid travel cards, a new and modern low-emission bus fleet and increased bus patronage.
Highlighted weaknesses include a lack of alternative forms of public transport, inadequate provision of bus shelters, a poor quality pedestrian infrastructure that reduces access to bus stops in urban areas, low level of bus priority provision and fare levels for certain unscheduled transport services being set too high.
“The new bus network in Malta provides good levels of public transport access to most new development growth areas and new public transport hubs have been developed at these locations which are now becoming increasingly used by the public.”
One measure recommended by the plan would see the implementation of public transit ‘quality corridors’.
“Based on the transport modelling and spatial analysis undertaken in support of the Transport Master Plan, a number of important bus corridors have been identified for action corresponding to regional movement, slow bus travelling times, and high patronage and frequency levels... This will entail determining optimal capacities, provision of a continuous network of public transport priority routes along the corridors (improved reliability, journey times), removal of obstructions at pinch-points, improved monitoring of operations along these corridors, traffic signal control to favour buses, improving the quality of bus waiting infrastructure, provision of real-time information systems and improving comfort on-board buses (eg provision of free public Wifi).
“A number of these corridors are not classified as Arterial or Distributor roads and therefore do not fall under Transport Malta’s responsibility. In such cases the possibility of reverting responsibility for these sections of the road to Transport Malta is being considered as they would form strategic links in the Public Transport network which requires infrastructural improvements and monitoring.”
Another measure calls for the improvement of the environment and accessibility at the Valletta public transport hub.
To see the full Master Plan, go to the Transport Malta website.