“From my house to university, it took me a total of 15 minutes, and coming back home it took me 16 minutes, using my pedelec,” he told Lovin Malta.

Vella explained how his experience with a pedelec is very different compared to when he used to drive to University on a daily basis. 

“I didn’t always use my bike. When I turned 18 and enrolled in Malta’s university, the first thing I did was get my car license, and I used to drive to the university,” he explained.

“I used to waste a lot of time, going around the ring road to find parking, wasting fuel, wasting money, and wasting time, which would result in a lot of stress and frustration.”

He also detailed how there were times when he used to have no choice but to park in Swatar, with the walk to the university taking around 15 minutes – which is the time it takes to arrive by bicycle. 

“A few years later, I bought a pedelec because I was tired of wasting time, and when I started using it, I regretted not using it earlier,” he said.

“It makes sense for Malta, especially for distances which are around five to six kilometres. And from then onwards I always used my bicycle to get to the University.”

Going even further back, Vella also spoke about his experience at Junior College, and how much time it used to take him to use Malta’s public transport.

“It would have been much easier and less time-consuming if I used a bike to commute to the school,” he said.

Rota is an NGO that advocates for safe cycling in Malta. Most of this NGO’s work is focused on raising awareness on bicycle commuting, micro-mobility and harnessing the excessive use of cars particularly in a small country like Malta where distances are short and can be traversed quite easily also by using other forms of mobility.

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