Right of Reply A Little Sharrow History

On the subject of Infrastructure Malta CEO’s remarks: “Wied Qirda works continued because road was dangerous; widened part to be removed – IM CEO” dated 24 November 2019, imply that the Bicycling Advocacy Group (BAG) had suggested sharrows. While I cannot speak for the BAG itself, I can perhaps place this in some sort of context, regarding sharrows locally.

The only isolated case I can recall the BAG suggesting to Transport Malta and not Infrastructure Malta, in my time as a former Committee member, was when the late Lt Col. Gerald Degaetano and I suggested sharrows on Tower Road – and Tower Road only – many years ago. This isolated case was a proactive approach by our group to control cyclists riding on the promenade.

Unfortunately, this was turned down by Transport Malta and since then sharrows have fallen into poor favour with the rest of the world’s road planners and cycling advocates alike, as in some cases they have proved in practice to provide less protection than an unmarked road due to poor driver behaviour.

The only reason we suggested it, and even then it was our last and least-preferred option, was due to Tower Road being a relatively slow singlelane road, compared to, say, Tal Balal’s dual carriageway and – importantly, we felt – it avoided removing parking spaces or taking up promenade space.

Both Gerald and I were flabbergasted when the planner, speaking to us after turning down our suggestion on the basis of traffic flow, asked: “Why would a cyclist want to ride on such a dangerous road?” Our answer was simple: to get to the other end... and avoid cycling on the promenade!

If this happens to be the ‘suggestion’ by BAG that sharrows, mentioned by Engineer Azzopardi, could be used willy-nilly then I am afraid he and his planning team at Infrastructure Malta has been very sadly misinformed.

■ Jim Wightman St Julian’s