The volume of traffic has reached its peak, yesterday being a case in point, evident from the amount of negative comments posted online by Facebook users.

The fact that it rained did not ease matters but at the end of the day, this is irrelevant. The problem has now reached crisis level, with most of Malta gridlocked at peak times. It is absolutely unacceptable for a 20km journey to take over 90 minutes to complete.

A factor that may be exacerbating the problem is a number of road closures where motorists are being driven to take alternative routes, a case in point being the Birkirkara valley which is currently closed to traffic due to works being conducted on the said road tied to the storm water project.

We are in no way stating that works of this sort should not be carried out, however, there needs to be more cooperation between local councils, the Roads Department and the Police to ensure that certain works do not overlap with other works in other frequently used roads.

Another issue which isn’t helping is the traffic policemen stationed on the roundabout near Santa Lucija where motorists driving towards Marsa are being diverted towards the airport instead of being allowed to use the road leading to the Addolorata Cemetery.

From the one side, this strategy may be easing traffic which piles up on the said road on a daily basis but it merely creates havoc in other roads such as Garibaldi Road which is parallel to hill leading to Addolorata. Motorists should be given the choice what routes to take unless they are closed to traffic due to works. It is useless to make motorists take longer alternative routes when they still have to face heavy traffic elsewhere and in turn, create another traffic jam.

At times the presence of police officers does help but in others it does not. In fact, it is evident that certain areas controlled by traffic policemen seem to become more congested as opposed to when traffic is left to flow on without their assistance. We are not saying that the officers purposely create jams. In fact, we believe that the problem is now so severe, that not even human intervention – no matter how expert – can alleviate the problem.

It is high time the Police, local councils and the government put their heads together and outline the problems and solutions to try and get down to the crux of the matter, even if it takes implementing drastic measures similar but not necessarily like Athens, Italy and Beijing have implemented in the past such as the odd-even registration  number system to control traffic whereby vehicles are permitted to be driven, through the allocation of certain days, based on the last digit of the registration plate. It might sound drastic, but if this is the way forward let it be, at least during wintertime when traffic reaches a new high every year.

At the end of the day, the problem boils down to the number of cars on the road. We believe that even if Arriva ran smoothly and with the utmost efficiency, Maltese people would still be addicted to their cars and would not ever dare to leave them at home. After all, we have to drive the kids to school, even if it’s only a few streets away.

A long time ago, former MP Michael Frendo had addressed parliament during the adjournment and suggested that studies for an underground system be carried out. Many argue that it would not be financially feasible. But for goodness’ sakes, something has to be done. The problem really has reached crisis level.