Watch: ‘Safety Galore’ – Cyclist Crosses Road As Traffic Officers Wave Cars Over Red Pelican Lights In Luqa
A Maltese cyclist documented the various moments he was trying to cross a busy road in Luqa using the pelican lights while traffic officers continued to wave cars over to pass – even though the light was red for vehicles.
What’s worse is that this ordeal has happened countless amounts of times along Triq il-Kunsill tal-Ewropa, with the cyclist, who is also Rota’s secretary general, managing to catch it on video on three separate occasions.
Speaking to Lovin Malta, Paolo Cassar Manghi deplored the approach taken by the officers, saying that it only “promotes a deeper culture of ignoring red lights”.
In the three videos shared with Lovin Malta, the transport officers can be seen allowing cars to drive over the red light while rushing the cyclist to cross the road.
“What are you doing? I’m trying to cross the road,” Cassar Manghi tells the officer. “Safety galore!” he shouts another time while cycling away from the scene.
“It’s sending the wrong message that traffic woes are caused by people who, in reality, are not causing it – when it’s the big mayhem of cars that’s causing this,” Cassar Manghi told Lovin Malta.
“Doing it once, twice, and three times with the blessing of the authority, then this will create greater impunity when the big cat is not around.”
Cassar Manghi also questioned why there’s all this effort in letting cars pass in the remaining few seconds, only to get stuck a few metres down the road.
“We cannot keep jeopardising and experimenting with vulnerable users’ lives for meager gains of nanoseconds in traffic flow – the timing allocated to people crossing is already short enough.”
“Nor should we waste precious police human resources in these frivolous tasks, paid by our (everyone’s) taxes, instead of doing anything else more purposeful.”
Cassar Manghi also recounted moments where car drivers got angry at him for crossing when the light was green for pedestrians, warning that this is an unfortunate result that this approach could be leading to.
Lovin Malta reached out to Infrastructure Malta’s CEO Ivan Falzon, to enquire about the area in question’s current situation.
“The area is under temporary traffic management. The transport officers in place are there to assist road users and direct such as necessary. Of course, they do not report to us,” Falzon told Lovin Malta.
Meanwhile, the area has recently gotten another main pelican crossing removed, leading to residents having to encounter a massive detour to get to their residences.
Do you agree with the traffic officer’s approach contributing to a disregard for red lights?
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