The distinction between streets and roads may not mean much to many. The hybrid stroad is the imposition of the nature of the road on that of the street, and with Malta’s building sprawl and population density, it’s becoming a problem.

It’s showing up in our traffic accident statistics, and this is the reason why we should worry.

Technically, roads are meant to be fast-moving throughfares that connect a location to another, whether the context is urban, residential or rural. You won’t find the same pavement width, parking spaces, pedestrian crossings, loading and unloading bays that are associated with streets, because a street carries a different function.

The hybrid stroad is dangerous because of the confusing information it relays back to the pedestrian and the driver. Think of Mosta Road in St Paul’s Bay, that has become a stroad and a hotspot for accidents, some of them fatal. There’s too much information bombarding users and the street use becomes too intense when the many, overlapping land uses are in action at the same time. Check it out – there’s the main thoroughfare, then a parallel side street with shops, double and triple parking next to busy outlets on the opposite side. It is a residential and a commercial area, complete with banks, ATMs, take-aways and retail. A number of bus routes servicing the north pass through, plus there are more than one petrol station and traffic lights with pedestrian crossings. It’s a junction where both people and vehicles converge, competing for space.  And it’s a killer.

There are similar places elsewhere – Għajnsielem for example, or Għaxaq bypass, where both locations have registered traffic fatalities over the years and have similar competing land uses. Both were originally meant to function as fast thoroughfares but with development, they took on a street function and becoming stroads.

Malta might have 35 per cent of it built up, but the urban sprawl and the increase in the number of vehicles in service is impacting our roads. That, and bad decisions, such as the Mrieħel bypass traffic lights installed recently, turning one of the arterial roads into a stroad. Even if temporary, is this necessary? Roads are meant to be fast-moving, so why is the flow passing through the 70 km/hr zone going to be halted? 

Where is the PR machine that explains to the public matters that are of concern? Consider the Tal-Barrani road where its junctions going into Bulebel and into Tarxien were closed off shoddily with concrete slabs, disabling the traffic lights there, without any explanation given to the public. So a fully-functional road was pruned off, and left half-finished.

Is any of this sustainable? What will the rainy season bring about once it starts – these areas are already known for flooding and will only cause damage to the road user, not to the government coffers. The Żejtun part of Tal-Barrani takes days to dry off after a heavy downpour, for example.

Stroads are not immune from this mess either – if anything, they’re just as worse because of the intensity of the land use in one small area becomes unsustainable when water run-off  isn’t properly considered. Think of Constitution Street in Mosta, that is forever flooded as it doubles up as a catchment area and run-off for the Wied il-Għasel valley system, starting from the civic centre zone right up to the arched bridge that straddles Wied l-Isperanza. We have already seen the recent damage caused in the area close to the San Anard chapel in mid-August.

Is there anyone who can fix this? Aren’t there enough brains to make infrastructure  sustainable, harvest rainwater properly, and make our roads great?

There are more issues involved on top of bad design. As if the increasing cars is not enough, there is also a qualitative issue – the type of vehicles using the streets. There are  e-scooters escaping enforcement, and road users not familiar with driving on the left side of the road, for example, making places such as Buġibba a total nightmare to navigate. Just putting up signs saying ‘share the road’ is risible, to say the least.

I’m unimpressed by some of the morning show hosts discussing traffic jams. “I cannot stand seeing all these cars with just one person in them – look at the CCTV - you need to share, dear listeners.” As if that is the solution to our traffic jams.  

Addressing the increasing traffic accidents and fatalities takes some serious research. Is anyone doing this?

The solution is not that of educating the public on how to use the road or the street – it’s more fundamental than that. It starts with a proper design and function that supports the infrastructure long-term and that has enough foresight to handle both man-made pressures and the impact of nature.