ADPD is adamant that Malta should stop wasting funds – including EU funds – on “useless roads,” arguing that the country should instead focus on measures that truly address the causes of traffic and which prioritise people over cars.
The party spoke on roads and traffic at a press conference in Balzan, where it presented its candidate for the town’s local council, Samuel Vella.
ADPD secretary general Ralph Cassar, one of the party’s four candidates for the European Parliament election, recognised that there was no magical solution to traffic, but lamented that successive governments not only refused to implement measures to this effect, but did the opposite of what was needed: wasting funds on “useless road-widening projects, junctions and flyovers, which in turn increased traffic and deadly pollution.
Cassar noted that in doing so, the government repeatedly ignored its own transport master plan, which explicitly stated that increasing road space for cars would not decrease traffic.
Instead, this plan argues that road space for cars needed to be reduced to encourage people to use other means of traffic, only for politicians to prove reluctant to do so.
Party chairperson Sandra Gauci – who is also contesting the EP election – said that the construction of junctions and flyovers provided expensive photo-ops but solved nothing.
Instead, she said, alternatives including a bus rapid transit system were necessary.
Gauci too drew inspiration from the master plan, which emphasised the need for “bus priority corridors” which would help address one of the main drawbacks of Malta’s public transport system: that it gets stuck in the same traffic caused by private cars, preventing it from serving as a viable alternative to them.
Public transport users should be encouraged by making their journeys easier, she said, and not be hindered by the same traffic buses aim to address.
Gauci pledged that together with their Green colleagues in the EP, ADPD would insist that EU funds are spent only on “sustainable mobility,” including safe bicycle use, the pedestrianisation of town and village centres, more ferry routes and a widespread bus rapid transit system.
Vella pledged to promote sustainable transport in his home town, focusing on people-friendly over car-friendly infrastructure whilst emphasising alternative means of transport including bicycles.
