“Last weekend, a cyclist was injured at the site of this morning’s action: on the country’s narrowest bicycle lane. Its design had been flagged as unsafe by Rota and local transport experts following its inauguration over two years ago,” Friends of the Earth, Rota, and Moviment Graffitti said in a statement.

However, after it was flagged by a number of activists and organisations, no changes were made to the present bike lane. 

“This week, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth Malta, and Rota sent an open letter to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Aaron Farrugia; the CEO of Transport Malta, Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi; and the CEO of Infrastructure Malta, Ivan Falzon.

The organisations are now demanding that political responsibility be shouldered for their failure to keep cyclists safe, calling for the road to be urgently redone in accordance with international best practices.

“Farrugia, Brigadier Curmi, and Falzon have not responded to these demands so far.”

At present, the government is touting its new Road Safety Plan, entitled ‘Towards Safer Transport in Malta’, which focuses on investigating road safety.

However, they are completely glancing over the importance of road design for the safety of different road users, particularly vulnerable ones such as pedestrians and cyclists (including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities).

They continued to say that the spending of millions upon millions on roads in the past years has neither solved Malta’s congestion problem nor led to ‘safer roads’ as promised.

“Following the deafening silence in response to our open letter to the Transport Minister and CEOs of Infrastructure Malta and Transport Malta, we ask once again: who will take responsibility for these road crashes and deaths by design?”

The organisations believe that if the people at the helm of the relevant authorities remain inactive on this issue, then they are not fit for purpose and should resign.

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