In the second quarter of 2023, the stock of licensed motor vehicles increased at a net average rate of 58 motor vehicles per day according to the National Statistics Office.

That’s 58 more vehicles on the road each and every day. This number has actually been on the rise. In total there are 432,039 licensed vehicles, and we wonder why traffic just doesn’t seem to improve.

In terms of newly licensed vehicles in Q2 this year, the majority were passenger cars -  4,160. This is the highest number of newly licensed passenger cars in a single quarter since at least the beginning of 2020.

Malta has a serious problem. If we are going to get the traffic situation under control, then we really need to get the number of vehicles under control also.

Clearly the free public transport for all initiative, while being a good idea, is on its own not enough.

So then what might the problem be? Could it be that buses are just getting stuck in traffic, meaning that people would prefer to be in their cars in such a situation? Possibly. Could it be that people in Malta are just too attached to their vehicles? Possibly. Could it be that the service needs improving and more routes? Possibly. These are questions that need to be answered.

What is sure is that action must be taken to push people away from using their private cars. We need a plan that will look into Malta’s public transport routes, improve its efficiency and improve the use of alternative transport, all the while not creating a situation of choc-a-block traffic. Such a plan would likely need to consist of many different measures. Widening roads alone also didn’t work. We need comprehensive long-term planning on this front.

So what could be done. Well firstly we will not pretend to be experts in tackling traffic issues. But one can easily bring up some ideas that have been mentioned.

For instance, could different measures be introduced to supplement public transport use?

The Malta Chamber of Commerce for instance has been pushing for an e-mobility wallet, by introducing parking fees in central urban areas with fees paid being transferred into an e-mobility wallet for use of sustainable means of transport.

What about the reintroduction of more bus lanes to speed up public transport, making it appeal more to the public – though this was tried and failed in the past due to public backlash and the fact that it created way too much traffic. To be fair the government should have planned it better and made more inclusions for such lanes when spending hundreds of millions on doing up Malta’s roads over the years. This could still be a possibility, but the government needs to start planning ahead so as not to create traffic issues again.

What about better planning and coordination when it comes to blocking off roads for works?

The government also wants to stagger services in the peak hours. This could help, but one asks whether this would be a long-term solution given the increase in vehicles on the roads?

Of course one also must point out Malta’s economy being based on increasing the population, which means more people trying to get around the small country.  Aside from the need to rethink the economic model, we must make traffic reduction plans which will have an impact not just now, but 10, 20 years from now.

Making public transport free was a good move, but alone it will not solve Malta’s traffic issues. It needs to go hand in hand with other measures.

There is no single solution, but the answer likely lies in many smaller initiatives to tackle the issue. If the measures inside the government’s existing strategies and plans aren’t able to deal with the situation, then they need to try again. One hopes planners are able to come up with a comprehensive set of measures that will help in this situation.