Back in March, the government offered to pay €25,000 to anyone prepared to give up their driving licence for 5 years to help clear cars off the roads and decrease the notorious congestion in our towns and villages.
Despite the sizeable inducement, there doesn’t appear to have been a rush of people stepping forward to take up this generous offer. Five years is a long time, packed with possible changes in circumstances where being able to drive could be, if not crucial – after all, there are plenty of people who get by day to day without getting behind the wheel – then very helpful. Perhaps an elderly relative will need regular visits to the doctor, or a surprise pregnancy and its delightful squawking consequence will turn the weekly trip to the supermarket into a mission that would have even Indiana Jones in tears without air-conditioning and a trunk in which to stash the pushchair.
Bolt, Uber and other taxi services generally offer a handy alternative to driving, but they change the number of road users not one jot. Cabs sit in the same queues as the rest of us. You might have jettisoned your licence for the sake of the nation’s asthma sufferers (or the €25,000), but you’re still lined up with the rest of us.
What we’d all really like, on the school run or on the way to the office is a clear road ahead. So what we need, what we really need, is everyone to take the bus whenever they can. Not if you’re helping Nannu to the hospital or have two under-threes and a new microwave to take back home to the outskirts of Dingli. But if you’re going to Birkikara, Floriana or Valletta, or you’re heading out of the Grand Harbour area to Zejtun, Attard or Mellieħa, then there’s a route that’s right for you.
“The buses are packed; the routes are slow,” I hear you cry, and yes, you’re right. So, let’s get more of them. Lots more.
Why don’t we put some of the money that hasn’t been used to buy back driving licences towards increasing the number of buses on the road, and doubling – even tripling – their frequency. And then, instead of paying a whopping lump sum to the holder of each relinquished driving licence, pay individuals to make the switch from private car use to public transport. Instead of simply benefitting from free trips with a Ta-linja cards, residents could use them to build credit on a journey-by-journey basis. How about paying people €2.50 every time they use the bus?
That €25,000 on offer could cover ten journeys a week, 52 weeks a year for nearly 20 years – whilst legions of vehicles lurk in garages rather than blocking our byways, day in day out.
And for more than €1000 a year in our pockets, surely many of us would embrace the eco-alterative to belching out individual exhaust fumes, and bask in the smug green glow of helping save the planet.
