From Mr J. Schembri

The car-parking problem can be eased with a few simple and fair solutions.

Shouldn’t we reduce the allowed distance at street corners to have more car spaces?

Should not one be made to pay a reasonable sum, say e58 annually, to have a clear space in front of his/her garage, and obliged to park in that space when the car is within a radius of 200 metres?

Should not a “No Parking” sign have an authorisation seal of the local council, or the traffic board?

The blue line parking system “for residents only” is unfair. It should be abolished and declared illegal, which is what the Italian courts decided about this system in Rome. How long should the poor driving public wait for the Maltese Appeals Court to decide this case? Can we imagine the chaos if all the localities in Malta adopt this parking system?

Mepa should utilise the funds it has levied for this purpose from developers who did not provide parking space in their projects. The Park and Ride project funding in Horns Ditch is a good example – let’s have more. The proposed underground car park in St George Square, as reported in this paper, can easily be financed/ aided with this Mepa fund.

Using public transport eases the parking problem in busy areas. When I use public transport I pity the bus drivers and the daily commuters when the bus has to slow down or stop each time it encounters one of the “sleeping policemen” the local councils plant on our main roads.

I guess there are about 10 sleeping policemen on the bus route from Zurrieq to Luqa.

Minister Tonio Fenech was right when he declared that these self-imposed hurdles are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

John Schembri

ZURRIEQ