The ‘Reshaping our Mobility’ initiative has only one objective, which is to implement a series of proposals aimed to alleviate traffic congestion. There is a total lack of vision, and hence the objective is extremely limited. The vision should be for mobility justice, ensuring that everyone, including the vulnerable, have just access to mobility.
Although it is welcome that there is a call to consult the public, the manner in which it is implemented is not focused. Ideally communities are identified and engaged with to understand their needs and challenges. Reference should have been made to relevant EU and national directives, policies, strategies and research, to develop a stronger vision. There is no reference to the existing transport policies, such as the Transport Master Plan and Strategy.
All transport ministers in the past decade – and those before – have focused on prioritising infrastructure for cars. This is a dead end. It does not and will never work. Creating more parking spaces will not alleviate the problem of car use, but rather promote car use. To create a modal shift away from private car use, we need measures that restrict or reduce private car use (such as implementation of congestion charging, Low Emission Zones, removal of car lanes or access, paid and/or managed parking), alongside incentives for the use of sustainable mobility.
Pillars 2 and 3 contradict one another. People are said to be incentivised to limit the use of private vehicles (pillar 2), whilst at the same time being incentivised with new parking spaces (pillar 3). Behavioral change is needed – policies that keep on “alleviating” rather than “altering” will not miraculously change the situation.
Pillar 6 is left unexplored. A national cycling strategy was released after years of being in the pipeline, but all we got was a short slideshow. The first phase of a cycling network is also delayed. Meanwhile, we receive news that funds allocated for buses have instead been allocated to cars. Seriously tackling traffic and reducing the amount of cars on our roads has never been a priority for any government (past or present).
For further ideas and suggestions, please refer to our previous feedback submitted by Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti and Rota:
● SUMP for the Valletta Region (2022): https://foemalta.org/climate-change/sump-ngoresponse/SUMP feedback_FoEM_MG_Rota.pdf
● National Cycling Strategy (2023): https://foemalta.org/blog/cycling_response/
● Msida creek project (2021-2024):
○ foemalta.org/press-releases/msidacreek/
○ www.rota.mt/msida-creek
○ movimentgraffitti.org/2022/11/01/the-msida-creek-project-needs-to-return-to-t
he-dra/
○ https://foemalta.org/press-releases/msida-creek-pr/
