Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/890548
maltatoday SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER 2017 17 Nevertheless, one has to start from somewhere, and Facebook groups such as 'Pass Pass' and the Bicycle Advocacy Group appear to have kicked off a much-needed discussion on what can be done. Acknowledging that "Bicycle Ad- vocacy Group is doing a sterling work building up a community and providing tips as well as push- ing for policy changes", Raffaella Zammit then tells me about how the economist Marie Briguglio and herself have tried to do their bit with 'Pass Pass' – Malta's first Facebook group dedicated to Pe- destrian Rights. "I had been mulling over this for a while, especially after realising the disastrous state of our pave- ments. I had always noticed that we do not see a lot of wheelchair users on our streets, and in gener- al, they are unfortunately relegated to using the road rather than pave- ments due to reduced accessibil- ity. This became a reality when a family member started using the wheelchair," Zammit says, empha- sising that, "Ultimately, we need to normalise walking, cycling, public transportation". This, however, will require us to "rewire our mindset", according to Zammit. "We are a car-dependent nation. Our policies centre around the car, which is basically trans- lated to how are we going to get cars from point A to point B as fast as possible and where to place them when not in use. On a small island nation where space is at a premium surely finding space for over 300,000 cars should not be a priority, but urban green spaces or shared open spaces for different community activities," Zammit adds, echoing some of the con- cerns expressed during the Presi- dent's Foundation for Wellbeing in Society's national conference. What Zammit proposes is a para- digm shift that promotes a "pedes- trian-centric mindset, with the least polluting method of transport having primary focus". She elaborates: "So for pedestri- ans provide proper, wide, level, ac- cessible, well lit, green pavements. Provide safe passageways from one town to the next town. For cyclists provide safe and complete cycling paths. For bus users make sure they have priority over car users. This means that specific streets and roads need to be identified and priority lanes for buses, minivans, bicycles, and carpooling need to be provided. This will free up the roads from unnecessary traffic." Lucid suggestions, certainly, and Facebook groups like Pass Pass have proven that Zammit is thankfully not a lone voice in the wilderness. The groups provide something of a much-needed con- tact point between all 'injured par- ties' of this sorry traffic mess, re- freshingly coagulating what would have been our solitary bouts of complaining. (Zammit is quick to point out that, in all of this, "Con- cerns by car users also need to be heard and addressed in order to implement a successful transport strategy"). But the 'modal shift' that Zam- mit hopes for may also be finding expression in more creative out- lets. Zoning in on the tragicomic absurdity that underlies the traffic situation here, with a particular fo- cus on the frustrating dynamics of parking, Greta Muscat Azzopardi tells me how the initiative 'Parking Space Events' – which she kick- started along with Letta Shtohryn and Johannes Buch – aims to ad- dress not just the traffic situation as a whole, but also what amounts to an excessive idolisation of the car itself. The modest events – effectively urban picnics with aspirations towards performance art – come about after the group acquires a No Parking permit from the Val- letta local council and occupies a parking space for an hour or two... so far, the events have ranged from public talks and yes, picnics where the public was invited to partake in drinks and nibbles with the Park- ing Space Events crew. "The initiative is not directly linked to our transport crisis but plays with one of its biggest caus- es: the way we structure so much of our public space around the 'needs' of the private car and the perceived comfort it brings us," Muscat Azzopardi says. "As a nation we often picnic in parking spaces, right next to our car, wanting to be as close as pos- sible to it and not have to carry be- longings more than half a metre," she adds, picking three key ques- tions that underlie the group's pro- ject: "How can we make better use of public space? How can we re- imagine its use? What best serves our lives as people living here?" They're certainly questions worth asking, especially since we can all pretty much agree that things just going on like they used to won't cut it anymore. And Raf- faella Zammit offers up some com- pelling reasons as to why this is so. "If we keep at this status quo the result is more of the same, there's no magical cure – more frustra- tion everyday, more air pollution, more respiratory problems, more pressure on moving out from ur- ban cores to greener spaces, which only transfers the problem to a different space, more noise pollu- tion, less community, less interest in our local geography, in our cul- tural heritage and in our environ- ment. The traffic problem is only a symptom." treljic@mediatoday.com.mt I L L U M . C O M . M T ABOUT ILLUM Illum is Malta's favourite independent Maltese-language news source with the popular ILLUM.COM.MT and Sunday newspaper. First published in 2006, Illum continues to off ff f er readers a fresh approach to journalism in Maltese away from the stifling political tone of other newspapers. Outstanding Maltese intellectuals contribute to Illum on a weekly basis. WEBSITE STATISTICS SOCIAL STATISTICS Daily Views - 21k+ Monthly Views - 650k+ Monthly Users - 104k+ 25.9k+ 1.1k+ 30% TRAFFIC 60% TRAFFIC 95% 9 traff ff f ic from Malta 10% TRAFFIC Send advertising inquiries to info@mediatoday.com.mt While civil society tends to focus on the part over- development plays in the loss of green spaces, it's worth remembering that traffic plays a big part in that mess too News