All roads lead to gridlock
It was almost ironic how the Cabinet made a show of holding their congregation at the Transport Malta offices on Tuesday, when the following day the country saw some of the worst traffic it has seen for months on end.
The centre of Malta was a case of complete gridlock for hours yesterday afternoon and evening. As an example, we can vouch for the fact that yesterday mid-afternoon it took drivers an entire hour to crawl the gauntlet from Vittoriosa to the Marsa junction – half an hour up the road to the Paola Mosque and another half an hour down the hill to the Marsa traffic lights. Once Marsa was cleared, it was smooth sailing.
It is understandable that gridlock occurs when there is an accident, that is just a fact of life, but it is another matter altogether when planned works are the culprit. When the latter is the case, shouldn’t driver be advised to seek alternative routes? Should there not be more Transport Malta officials or traffic police on the roads to ensure traffic flows as smoothly as possible?
But there was none of this to be seem yesterday - just a surprise gridlock and a surprise hour sliced out the lives of the several hundreds of road users caught up in yesterday’s nightmare.
Stuck in all that traffic, one could slice the tension with a knife. Exasperation, frustration, anxiety. People have places to go, children to pick up, jobs to get to, and deliveries to make. This is not just about lost productivity and work hours, such instances also take a drastic toll on people’s quality of life and as such, when situations such as yesterday’s known in advance, mitigating measures also need to be set in place.
Now it is undeniable that the results of these massive road projects that are underway will eventually improve matters on an unprecedented level. But in the interim, drivers need to be treated with a little more courtesy. And they weren’t, as evidenced by the reams of social media posts complaining about the situation.
The thing is, if matters are this bad at the moment, what will happen once the megaMarsa flyover project gets underway? One shudders to think of such prospects that lie in store for the people who absolutely need to traverse from north to south and back every day.
If proper measures are not set in place by then, for every contingency, matters are undoubtedly set to go from bad to worse, a lot worse.
Once again, accidents are one thing but taking mitigating measures when planned works are to take place is quite another thing.
And on a final note, wouldn’t it be a great If Transport Malta were to actually offer an explanation when such gridlocks occur? Not only do drivers and their passengers want one, they deserve one, and in the process such a move may provide a little more goodwill between the provider, in the form of Transport Malta, and the end user.