ADPD – The Green Party said that the Central Link project failed to adhere to the modern principles applied in European countries whereby roads encourage sustainable mobility while supporting and improving the quality of life of communities.
Addressing a press conference, Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that while traffic congestion on our roads is a major problem, unfortunately those responsible for our transport policy seem not to be aware that this congestion is not due to the length or width of our roads but due to the number of cars on the road. Instead of a modern vision what we have in Malta are years of a short-sighted PLPN mentality, which has brought us roads which increase congestion and pollution and a vicious circle of road building which cause more congestion. This phenomenon is well documented, but some don’t bother to keep themselves up-to-date.
“Our roads do not have the capacity for more cars that have been increasing more than the size and the needs of our islands require. The National Transport Plan references a basic analysis to what is the problem: we have not been able to take a long-term view in transport planning i.e. in Malta we have been looking at the immediate benefits while ignoring the long-term impacts.”
“Specifically in the section entitled ‘Improving the planning and design for an integrated long-term transport policy’ the National Transport Plan states: ‘…it can be seen from experience that the approach to transport planning and policy in Malta has generally been more short-term (4-5 years) in nature. The lack of importance given to long-term planning means that a long-term integrated plan based on solid analysis with clear objectives and targets is lacking. This has resulted in the lack of strategic direction and the inherent inability to address difficult issues such as private vehicle restraint. There is a strong reluctance for Maltese society to change but this is in contrast with the need for communal action to address the traffic problems existing now and in the future. This results in the Maltese traveller expecting that everyone else will change their travel habits so that they can continue to drive their car. (section 2.2.1 of Transport Master Plan)”
“The situation is crystal clear. We have a problem: car dependency. Widening or lengthening roads will only solve the traffic congestion problem for a short period of time. However, as studies in other countries have repeatedly shown, roads infrastructure projects increase traffic and therefore end up increasing congestion. On the other hand, reducing car dependency is a long-term process that will not be looked at favourably by voters! However, a modern transport vision and urban zones design will effectively lead to a better quality of life.”
“Today’s problems are being transferred to the future generations. Because the traffic congestion we are suffering today is the price we have to pay for the accumulated incompetence in transport policy over different PLPN administrations. Addressing the real problems has been avoided so far. But there are no magic wand solutions: the problem has to be faced head on. In the meantime, the problem will only get worse.”