Much has been said about traffic congestion lately with blame coming from all directions, whether it is school traffic, heavy vehicles or just the primary cause, the sheer numbers of private vehicles on our toad system. One or the constants of the blogs and comments sections is that while criticisms are high, few solutions are given.

We may all wish for flyovers, that just get you to the next jam downstream quicker or metro's and monorail's that nobody wants to pay for, but wants everybody else to use. In reality these are short term bandaids. Even the metro system's success is rather dubious if it's not big enough to cover the entire island and all of its communities, remembering that most major cities underground systems were built up over decades. The issue is finding something quick to build, cheap and ultimately promises to reduce car use so that there is more space on the road for everybody else.

The use of bicycles can be a very cheap way of creating this mobility whilst also helping tom create space on our roads, and importantly offers considerable benefits to the state as payback. Recent public bike share data in Washington DC has shown an improved traffic flow by up to 3%, while local users travel times in Malta have consistently shown that it is quicker to use a bicycle during the rush hour. This is particularly so for trips below the average car trip of 5.2km. Coupled to significant health benefits which account for 60% of the savings, congestion savings being as high as 20%, building cheap bicycle infrastructure can minimally double the return on investment and rise to as much as 35 times this according to the UK's Department of Transport.

This does not have to be limited to personal transport either, cargo bikes in other European cities have started replacing delivery trucks where the latter cause congestion or become unproductive, stuck in traffic jams or making them themselves. This makes the business of delivering goods easier for everyone and again speeding up traffic.

After all just as it’s much easier to pass a cyclist than a car, promoting bicycles will avoid drivers having to face more taxes, heavy restrictions on car use or road pricing. So simply put, people on bicycles benefit everyone.

Jim Wightman

 PRO BAG Malta