Send Paceville junction plans back to drawing board, Graffitti says

Moviment Graffitti have called for the redesigning of a new road junction to Paceville, saying the renders presented by Infrastructure Malta are based on an outdated approach to traffic management and a car-centric vision that does not take public transport into account.

Infrastructure Malta’s plans for a new road junction in Paceville, at the intersection between Swieqi and St Julian’s, will required up to €50 million in public funds.

“The initial plans and renders published are extremely concerning. It seems like another car-centric project that will neither alleviate traffic in the long term, nor cater for the needs of anyone except car users,” Moviment Graffitti said.

Images show the new road network emerging at St George’s Bay and near Spinola Bay, close to Portomaso

Illustrations indicate a major makeover of the road infrastructure network

“Various people – working people, young people, the elderly, and those with certain disabilities – are particularly dependent on public transport to travel, yet the plans seem to include no bus lanes and very limited connections for pedestrians and cyclists. Given that four lanes of the project are dedicated almost exclusively to cars, space is clearly not the issue.”

Graffitti said that with 52% of Malta’s total population having a Maltese driving licence, the project was only catering for about half the population.

“Our current transport model is not only incredibly inefficient, but also grossly unjust, prioritising cars over all other means of transport, and so the needs of some people over others. It is completely unacceptable that these plans seem to make no provisions for those reliant on public transport, and very little provisions for pedestrians and cyclists,” Graffitti said.

The infrastructure is partly intended to cater to the traffic demands of new developments in the area. These include Joseph Portelli’s Mercury Tower and the PX Lettings tower – both of which are in the immediate vicinity – as well as the DB project on the former ITS site and Garnet Investments’s proposed mega-development on the Villa Rosa site.

“This means that infrastructure which ultimately serves the profits of property speculators is being financed using public funds. The government should not be beholden to business interests and their traffic woes, and paying taxpayer's money to accommodate their profits is obscene,” Graffitti said.

The NGO said that with major projects at Marsa, Kappara and elsewhere having only created more demand for cars or shifted bottlenecks elsewhere, an effective approach to traffic management required a break with this strategy in favour of prioritising public transport, but also walking and cycling.

“We would like to ask why, after so many major road projects and traffic still at a stand-still, does the government keep pursuing the same expensive, failed solutions? We hope that any consultation taking place listens to people’s concerns and suggestions and takes them seriously into account.”