Well there we have it. An EU study has established that Maltese drivers spend a grand total of 72 hours, every year, stuck in traffic.

The report also states that while we have the ‘safest’ roads – in terms of fatalities – we also have the fifth worst roads in the European Union. The fact that our roads are so bad probably means that we cannot drive fast in order to avoid potholes and as a result, the roads are ‘safer’. Tell that to our car or motorcycle suspensions.

The traffic problem hit its peak this year, with people fuming in summer as temperatures reached boiling point and people were stuck in endless lines of traffic for up to an hour for a six kilometre commute to work.

As people do, they began to wake up earlier to get to work on time, and as a result, instead of one rush hour, we created three.

Our road junctions were simply not designed for the volume of traffic that they have to take. When you factor in Malta’s insane ‘love affair’ with roundabouts, we created total gridlock with tailbacks from one end of the island to another.

The monstrous traffic jam that stretches from Paola and Fgura, through Qormi, up to tal-Qroqq and eventually St Julian’s is the stuff of legends and has to be experienced first hand to get a full grasp of the sheer size of the problem.

The Coast Road project has finally been completed, and that will allow for some breathing space. But next on the agenda, we have work in store for the Marsa junction and the Kappara junction. We can only begin to imagine the chaos which will ensue once these projects (which will take over a year to complete) are set in motion.

Transport Minister Minister Joe Mizzi said that the government is also looking into the possibilities, including the possibility of monorails and trains. But we need to look beyond that. We need to utilise more sea transport and we could also look at something as simple as underpasses, where roads literally cross each other, as a dip is dug to make a road simply pass straight under another one – a very effective solution in cities such as Antwerp and Brussels.

The fact of the matter is that spending 70 hours per year stuck in traffic is not good for our physical or mental wellbeing. It also puts a dampener on the economy as valuable man hours are lost every day.

The country which has the next highest rate is Greece, and that is almost half the hours that Malta racked up, with 40. It is has been abundantly clear for a long time that something has got to be done about this issue. Now, it has reached the tipping point and we have gone past the thin edge of wedge.

The government needs to bring in a team of experts to find a solution to this constant state of affairs.