The Attard Residents Environmental Network (AREN) has come out strongly against comments given to this newspaper by the president of the Malta Automobile Club, Alfred Farrugia, who that that the number of cars passing through Attard will not increase in a substantial manner as a result of the new proposed bypass.

The MAC recently launched a petition in support of the proposed Central Link project. AREN is objecting to the proposed project and wants a redesign.

Reacting to Farrugia’s comments to TMI, AREN said the MAC president was not following the recommendations of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) of 2014, the Transport Strategy of 2015, and the Transport Master Plan of 2016, all of which recommended a reduction in cars on the road, a modal shift of transport from cars to public transport, bicycles and walking and the inclusion of urban planners in the design of new roads.

“On the other hand, AREN is all for following the Government’s own recommendation i.e. to reduce traffic from residential areas. Mr Farrugia has clearly shown that he has a very poor knowledge of the plans as presented by Infrastructure Malta, even though these have now been in the public domain for a number of months. This is clearly shown by a number of inaccuracies that he has mentioned in regard to the proposed road,” AREN said.

“He seems to be under the impression that traffic from Mosta, shall suddenly take a magic route and find itself on the same new Valletta bound road. The truth is that there is no new, Valletta bound road but just Mdina Road (the present one), Triq iz-Zaghfran (the present Rabat bound) and Triq in-Nutar Zarb (the present two way street), that shall all be turned into one way roads, towards Valletta at a maximum (urban) speed limit of 50km/hr!

This lack of knowledge is further evident when he speaks of the bottle neck. This bottle neck shall remain as now a one lane road (Mdina Road) and a two lane road (Triq iz-Zaghfran) shall join into a two lane road (Triq in-Nutar Zarb).

A third point, is the statement ‘there are going to be lanes to direct traffic to cross and join the southbound or the northbound route.’ There is only one lane that can direct Rabat bound traffic into the Valletta bound traffic. This is near to the Corinthia junction and will allow cars from Valletta direction to turn into De Paule Avenue. There are no other lanes. Cars from De Paule Avenue have to go towards MFSA round about to turn back into the Rabat bound lane.”

Farrugia had told this newspaper that he was “not impressed” with the concept of induced demand.

Induced demand is a theory mentioned by the Attard Residents Environmental Network (AREN) which simply put means that if wider roads are available than more cars will pass through them and in the end cause more pollution.

AREN said there are “hundreds of papers published in international, peer reviewed papers that have scientifically proven the phenomenon of induced demand.”

It said Farrugia was also wrong when he stated that the current proposal is based on a 2006 draft. “The 2006 draft shown on the Central Malta Local Plan just showed an area that was earmarked for a possible four lane bypass. Thus this was neither based on any scientific study and nor was it a definite plan. The 2006 plan, while being a proper bypass, would still have produced a high level of pollution for the residents of Attard, living within 300 meters of its perimeter, and would have thus been as bad as this solution. If Mr Farrugia had taken his time to look at the actual plans, he would have noticed that while the majority of core of the village, would not have seen a decrease in traffic and thus pollution, the residents living around the proposed road will see an increase (traffic passing near their front and their back yards).”

AREN said that, like FArrugia it wants to see traffic flowing not only in the periphery of Attard, but actually at least 200 metres away from the periphery. This would ensure that all residents (and not only those living in the centre) would see a reduction in pollution especially the fine particles.

“That is why AREN has had discussions with various entities and persons including Transport Minister Ian Borg, to discuss their idea of a proper bypass (either bypassing Attard or better still also bypassing Qormi and Zebbug), an idea that contrary to Farrugia, was not discarded by the minister but actually taken up for study.”

The group encouraged the MAC president to sign its petition calling for such an improvement in the design of the road, as well as the PA objection, “as this is the only means we have to indulge in a proper consultation and have our voices heard during the PA’s deliberation of the project.”

It also invited Farrugia to a public discussion.