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Julian Manduca
MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja decided to travel to work alone in his car on Car Free Day a few days after telling his employees they should lead by example.
The top person in Malta’s environment and planning authority wrote to his employees Monday 20 September and told them: “We at MEPA lead by example. I would therefore like to urge you all to take a step in favour of the environment… by using public transport or, if you have to use a car, to use a car pool.”
Asked by MaltaToday why he did not follow his own recommendation Calleja failed to justify or elaborate on his decision. “The reasons are personal and not in the public interest,” he said.
Calleja was not the only one of MEPA’s top management to travel alone by car to work on that day, and when MaltaToday asked MEPA’s PRO how they could justify their actions the reply was: “No justification is required as MEPA officials are not public persons.”
Julian Manduca
Another car free day has come and gone, and debate about its usefulness continues to rage. Longer than usual traffic jams induced the The Times to dub it ‘Car Exhaust Day’ and The Malta Independent to question whether it should have been called ‘Pollution Day,’ but brace yourself because environment minister George Pullicino wants to repeat the exercise on a monthly basis.
This year’s car free day was meant to give streets back to the children and while it did in certain parts of the island, other parts experienced more traffic than on days when people are not asked to leave their cars at home.
There is no doubt that the idea behind Car Free Day and Mobility Week is a good one, but it is apparent that either the message is not getting across as it should be, or the lack of co-operation from the transport authorities is dooming the days to abject failure. The public, in its great majority decided to use their cars on the day turning the experience into a nightmare for many.
On his part the Pullicino told MaltaToday that while it was true that traffic jams occurred on the day these were restricted to areas which are notoriously bottlenecks.
The minister behind Car Free Day told MaltaToday that the organising committee put into effect measures to improve public transport on the day and said the frequency of bus trips on certain high demand routes was put into effect, while a plan to introduce a number of circular routes on a trial basis was not pursued because of negotiations between government and the Transport Association.
In other parts of the world Car Free Day - which is celebrated as part of an entire week dedicated to better transport systems - meant the introduction of initiatives that should have a long term positive impact on transport. While Malta is moving headlong towards static traffic, other countries are adopting integrated sustainable transport systems. Larger countries than Malta have introduced measures to restrict parking in cities and provided a more efficient public transport system to ensure that buses are a real alternative to using the private car.
In Malta Car Free Day was advertised mostly by stating that certain roads would not be accessible to traffic, other countries adopted more imaginative measures. In one town in Portugal an electronic display has been installed so that commuters know when a bus will arrive at each bus stop, and inside the buses a loudspeaker announces the following stop. In Greece one town of 110,000 inhabitants offered free public transport on the day. Serbia is adopting measures that should see public transport use jump from 40 to 50 percent. In the Macedonian capital of Skopje (446,200 inhabitants) an effort is being made to spread a bike riding culture. But the leading European countries that already have much more sophisticated transport systems organised a week-long programme of activities and adopted measures intended to have a lasting positive impact on their transport systems.
In Malta, our public transport system is largely based on a design that catered for the needs and requirements of a country fifty years ago. The routes and times of bus trips have remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, and people living in certain parts of the island are stranded unless they want to pay for exorbitant taxi drives after 9pm.
In truth, no car free day can be successful without the co-operation of the Malta Transport Association and the Transport Authority. Minister Pullicino’s efforts are bound to continue to be frustrated if the bus owners and drivers do not make a real attempt to attract more commuters. While Pullicino has blamed the public for the day’s failures,
representatives for the event in Sliema and Floriana (see box), as well as many members of the public, felt that Car Free Day could have been better organised.
Quizzed as to whether the day could be considered a success, Pullicino replied: “We do not keep any statistics about the level of participation since this is a voluntary initiative but it can surely be stated that most of our roads offered a rare sight of people enjoying the streets freely and without any dangers.
“The level of success of this year’s Car Free Day lies in the fact that 30 percent more local councils decided to adhere to this initiative.”
For most people, however, the day just meant added inconvenience, missed appointments, and increased frustration in bigger traffic jams.
MEPA leading by example
The authority in charge of the environment, one would expect should have passed the car free test with flying colours, and although less cars were noticed at the MEPA car park Wednesday, not all were enthusiastic enough to get to Floriana by bus.
MEPA’s chairman Andrew Calleja drove in to office alone that day and ironically it was he that had written to all MEPA employees earlier: “We at MEPA lead by example. I would therefore like to urge you all to take a step in favour of the environment… by using public transport or if you have to use a car, to use a car pool.”
When asked why he did not follow his own recommendation Calleja told MaltaToday: “The reasons are personal and not in the public interest,” but failed to elaborate on or justify his decision.
Several other top MEPA officials also decided to give Car Free Day the thumbs down and make the journey by car. When MaltaToday asked MEPA’s PRO how the managers could justify their action the reply was: “No justification is required as MEPA officials are not public persons,” and failed to give a reason.
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