Criticism against the government’s proposals to change school opening times to alleviate traffic congestion is coming in thick and fast.

It is becoming very clear that no one seems to know what to do to solve Malta’s ever growing traffic problem. Motorists are exasperated, public transport service operators are exasperated; and it also seems that the Transport Ministry itself is exasperated.

The problem seems to be never ending. In one respect, there is not much to be done about the fact that our road network seems to be constantly under construction. As soon as one project ends, another begins. The government decided that it would be better to finish one major project before beginning another. This makes sense, if the Kappara Junction, Marsa Junction and the Coast Road were all to be worked on concurrently, there would (first of all) probably not be enough contractors to engage at one go, and secondly, the resulting traffic chaos would be off the charts.

But we cannot just shift the problem. The problem  is with the roads, the way they are designed, and the still pitiful public transport on offer. Any attempt to tackle the problem from any other angle is always going to be perceived as an attempt to dodge biting the bullet.

Changing school hours is simply not going to be feasible. There are already three different rush hours in the mornings, the first as a result of civil servants getting to work early, the second is when kids are on the way to school and the third is when the private sector gears up for work.

Have the authorities really thought this through? Parents already have to get up to get their kids sorted for school very early in the morning. Do they really expect parents to get up at 4am? No. The solution to this problem is a systematic overhaul of Malta’s road network and public transport system.

It will take time and it will cost a lot of money, but it is clear that this is the only way to go. Unless the road network is brought up to standard complemented with a fully integrated mass transport  system including rail links, water links and an underground system, things will never change. It has to be an ongoing and evolving process which will last years.  But as with everything, the country needs a holistic top to bottom plan to sort this out. Malta is much like an unplanned city. Our country is an urban sprawl that has grown out in all directions, leaving us with a road network which is more complicated than Clapham Junction. But, in order to address the problem, heads need to be banged together for a good long term plan which will slowly but surely ease this gridlock that has become part and parcel of our daily lives.