It is most certainly time to plan for the future. Malta needs a long-term traffic management plan. Aside from the usual stop gap measures, such as building flyovers, underpasses and incentivising people to use public transport and more, we need to start thinking and implementing a long-term strategy.

We are not going to go into the usual list of complaints. Malta is at gridlock, this is fact. What we now need to do is examine ways to alleviate this problem in the future.

We are already decades behind other countries in terms of viable and non-pollutant mass transit systems. Whatever network we lay down now, will only be completed in 20 or 30 years time – and that is a very optimistic projection.

The truth of the matter is that no matter what short-term measures are taken, the government needs to set up some sort of Task Force to evaluate how we are going to tackle this problem. It has been suggested that roads could be built underground. Well, this is one way of looking at things, but if we are going to be digging a tunnel network, then we might as well go the whole hog and build an underground railway line. By the time we actually get the excavation done, technology will probably have evolved to the point where there are cleaner and more advanced systems available than the ones that are on offer today.

In addition, Malta must converge all its transport networks into one holistic system. Let’s just imagine, for one second, that Malta had some sort of a spokewheel type hub underground, serviced by trains. That hub would be serviced by other forms of transport, such as overland trams, buses, water transport and more.

The crux of the matter is that no matter how many band-aids we try to apply, they are always going to peel off. The government needs the help of experts, and as things stand, we have precious little of them (if any, especially given that experts told us that this was just a perception) and we therefore need to look outside Malta.

The Government has repeatedly said that Malta needs to do business with more than just other EU nations and this would be a perfect opportunity to do it. Who would have thought, 50 years ago, that Malta would have evolved into a country where people drive BMWs, trucks, bowsers, sportscars, classic cars, urban cars and more? Not many. And that is why we are in the situation we are in today, along with the fact that successive governments failed to ever act and take the bull by the horns. This is why we need to look to the future. Might we have to look at flying cars? Maglev tams? Hybrid boat/car/helicopters? Hoverboards? This might all sounds like pie in the sky right now, but who would have ever thought that we would have electric cars or electric trains and trams? We must think ahead, plan ahead and build a new and modern network from scratch.