‘Infrastructure Is Betraying Pedestrians’: Rota’s Sec-Gen Slams Removal Of Marsa Pelican Lights
Environmental bicycle advocacy NGO Rota’s Secretary General has slammed the removal of the pelican lights in one of Marsa’s main roads, forcing pedestrians to choose between a long detour or a quick, risky dash across a busy road.
This comes after Malta’s first road fatality of the year, beloved Pawlu ċ-Ċeċe, who had just celebrated his 79th birthday and lost his life while walking along the Marsa-Ħamrun bypass.
Just days later, footage sent to Lovin Malta showed the moment a pedestrian carelessly crossed the same road where Pawlu lost his life. However, Rota is arguing that you can’t blame pedestrians when there is no proper infrastructure in place.
Reacting to this video, Rota Secretary General Paolo Manghi told Lovin Malta that “pedestrians have been literally betrayed and punished, and it has nothing to do with pedestrians doing whatever they like”.
Manghi highlighted the massive detour that pedestrians have to take in order not to jaywalk after the pelican lights were removed.
“2023’s road kills have started just two weeks in – another case of infrastructure betraying pedestrians. We cannot keep disguising car infrastructure as pedestrian infrastructure and pretend we’ve solved anything,” Manghi wrote on social media.
“The elderly man was not crossing, the main road is crossing the way! The houses on one side have been there long before cars came, and are now trapped and isolated from the rest of Marsa.”
Image showing the detour pedestrians need to take to cross the road
“Pelican lights were removed and this is the detour expected in an aging area of the town, from 10m to 500m, 50x longer, several gradients, and at one point even a zebra crossing at a slip lane behind a blind curve,” he said, showing the detour in the image above.
The NGO has been an instrumental voice in bringing about change to Malta’s infrastructure, focused on bicycle advocacy.
Do you think pelican lights are needed in the area?
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