PART I   Making  Sliema Pedestrian-friendly

Background

“It is impossible to spend any time on the study of the future of traffic in towns without at once being appalled by the magnitude of the emergency that is coming upon us. We are nourishing at immense cost a monster of great potential destructiveness, and yet we love him dearly.

To refuse to accept the challenge it presents would be an act of defeatism  the motor vehicle will defeat its own utility and bring about a disastrous degradation of the surroundings for living. Either the utility of vehicles in town will decline rapidly, or the pleasantness and safety of surroundings will deteriorate catastrophically – in all probability both will happen.

(Extract from ‘Traffic in Towns’. Penguin Books; in association with HMSO. 1963/4).

This was written in 1963. Now, nearly half a century later, transport policies are turning full circle.

The trend in western towns and cities is to implement car restraint measures, to pedestrianise roads in order to encourage walking,  cycling and use of public transport.

The UK Department for Transport guidelines (Manual for Streets), states: “Streets should be designed as social places, not just traffic spaces”. The Transport Department also accepts the “need for pedestrians and drivers to live together better in residential areas”. 

Transportation Alternatives in New York plans to reclaim the city streets from the car, the aim being to renounce the country’s love affair with the car;  a protected bicycle lane separated from motorized traffic by a concrete buffer has already been been installed on Ninth Avenue. The Los Angeles city council has unanimously approved a plan to stop giving the car priority and plans to build an extensive network of 1680 miles of cycle paths and trails.

London, the once bicycle-unfriendIy city, has now embraced the bicycle. Millions have been invested in adapting London to the bike; this includes the Barclays Bicycle Hire system.  “Bicycle Highways”,  where bikes have priority over cars,  are being installed; these will lead from the periphery to the centre.

A fully signposted, largely traffic-free, cycle route between the centres of London and Paris, the so-called ‘Avenue Verte’, is due to be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Paris, London, Lyon Vienna and many other cities have extensive bicycle hire systems.

One of the aims of the National Commission for Sustainable Development for the Maltese Islands, 2007-2016, was to bring about a “modal shift from private transport to public transport, walking and cycling”.  It advocates “encouragement of more sustainable modes of transport, as an alternative to the private car, and focussing on a number of measures designed to upgrade the public transport service, and on the promotion of walking and cycling for short distance trips”.

This is starting to happen in Malta. Valletta is now being given back to pedestrians. It is encouraging to read that the regeneration plan for Cottonera includes in its aims:  “converting  unused sites  into  high quality recreational and leisure spaces for all the family”, “redesigning car parks  to give priority to pedestrians,”  “giving residents complete access to promenades” and   “creating a pedestrian connection from St Angelo to Boiler Wharf with a continuous link along the Three Cities”.

Pollution is a growing  problem in Sliema as a result of its narrow streets,  crowded, mostly high-rise, architecture and heavy traffic.  “Air quality and health”, a report   published in September 2010 by the European Respiratory Society, continues to stress that exhaust pollutants reach very high concentrations along streets -  with extreme conditions in narrow streets lined with tall buildings. It states again that diesel cars, trucks and buses emit particularly high concentrations of soot loaded with toxic substances.  Exposure to these pollutants can reach high levels busy commuting periods in people walking, playing or living close to main streets. Children are particularly susceptible to damage from pollution.

Local councils are best placed to provide healthier and better living conditions and safe infrastructure for their communities. In the context of this topic, councils should aim to  make  the road environment in their community healthier, more pedestrian friendly and safer for children by creating conditions that, as far as possible,  encourage cycling and walking, rather than using a car,  by making the road environment in their community more pedestrian friendly and safer for children.

This will require much re-thinking.

Sliema

Malta’s deeply ingrained over-dependence on cars contributes to immense traffic congestion in Sliema so that the social and recreational functions of streets are impaired and healthy mobility rendered practically non-existent.  Public road space is almost completely taken up by parked cars or moving traffic. This has made roads and streets pedestrian-unfriendly. Traffic pollution is intensified by high buildings in narrow roads, which trap emissions and do not allow them to disperse. This intensifies the damaging effect of pollution on residents. 

Shopping centres, supermarkets and food service chains with adjacent multi-story car parks have displaced the shop-around-the-corner to which people used to walk. This has increased intra-urban car use.  These small shops also helped to foster a community spirit and often provided  a social focus for the elderly or less well-off. 

Pedestrian-unfriendly roads discourage walking. Most pavements are narrow so that mothers with young children in prams are often obliged to share the roadway with traffic.
Provisions for the old or disabled are rudimentary or absent.
Streets are empty of trees. 

There is a marked contrast between the beautiful sea-front promenade and the neglected pedestrian unfriendly inner streets of Sliema. Were it not for the sea-front, Sliema would be a drab, monotonous  place.

There is little that can be done about the concentration of cars in Sliema – people cannot be prevented from purchasing cars. All that can be done is to find ways of persuading people to use them less.

Aims

• To make streets pedestrian friendly
• To reverse the dominance of cars in streets.  It is hoped that this will be facilitated by public transport reform.
• Reverse the trend towards inner Sliema areas becoming a ghost town with hundreds of unsold apartments –
  the product of runaway overdevelopment.
• Thought might be given to attracting younger people to live in Sliema. Making  roads friendlier to children might help attract young new residents.
• Stop further building of apartment blocks.

The forces for change to achieve these objectives can be subtle but consistent, for instance,  through provision of ‘environmental cues’  (or, according to modern-speak, “nudges”) aimed at gradually changing peoples’ habits and attitudes to transport.

Sliema Front:
The Sliema front represents the ideal situation of a promenade which invites people to take exercise. People are to be seen walk or jogging at most times of the day and evening. It has been beautifully embellished.

On the other hand, this road carries heavy traffic and the air is heavily polluted especially around St Julians Bay during rush hour (and paradoxically on Sundays). 

The Sliema front is a favourite spot for “Rambo” driving with cars driven recklessly at speed - this has caused accidents. 

Cycling on the road is dangerous. 

Suggestions
Simple measures:
Until now priority has been given to traffic flow; with no consideration of the needs of other road users as pedestrians (especially children) and cyclists.

• Pedestrians need to be given more consideration.
• Introduce  simple, inexpensive and  easily implemented cues aimed at educating motorists to respect pedestrians and drive more carefully in their presence. Examples might  include the following:
• “Give way to pedestrians” road signs installed wherever pedestrian and cars might conflict. These will serve purely as “educational” cues to gradually  condition motorists to drive carefully  in the presence of pedestrians.
• Prime examples where “Give way to pedestrians”  signs might be installed  are  the two asphalted minor roadways  leading from Tower  road to the seaside (by Fresco’s Restaurant  and “Exiles” car park) which are used by cars,  pedestrians and children.  Vehicle drivers often drive fast  among people (and children) on these beach approaches so the sign might be combined with a 5km/h speed limitation. A ‘give way to pedestrians’  sign  can be set up at the pavement car park at Ghar-id-dud.
• The system can be gradually extended by introduction of give way to pedestrian signs in selected areas which have little through-traffic (see below).  An immediate candidate for this could be the newly paved section of High Street near Tower Supermarket. (This incidentally is an excellent example of how attractive a residential road can be made by the simple expedient of paving the road over.)
• Much of Sliema’s population is elderly, consideration should be given to the survival of small neighbourhood grocers and corner mini markets which encourages people to walk rather than use a car.

Calming traffic in Tower Road:
Ideally, traffic on the Sliema (and St Julians) front should be calmed and pedestrians’ health, welfare and safety given more consideration. 

The problem is that Tower Road is a major traffic through-route. The cost-benefit analysis is therefore between that of diminishing pollution, thereby  making this road safer, healthier  and  more fit for pedestrians (ie less polluted), on the one hand,  and the possible negative  impact on traffic flow and/or public transport, on the other. Some , or all,  of the following might be considered as means of calming and possibly discouraging) traffic.

• 30 Km/h Limit signs. Speed reduction  in residential areas  not only save lives but also improves the quality of life for residents, especially young and elderly people.
• Zebra crossings at frequent intervals. These must be well-signposted with yellow Belisha beacon signs and road markings, possibly with a slightly raised platform. These help to induce car drivers to drive more carefully and at slower speeds.
• Roundabouts at Fond Ghadir and at the junction of tower road with Qui-si-sana Rroad.
• Re-design traffic system so as to re-distribute traffic more evenly – this will require an in-depth traffic study.

See also paras 404 – 410  in the Addendum below for further discussion of traffic calming.

Bicycles
Sliema, especially Tower Road, is ideal for bicycle use. It is likely that much of the car traffic on Tower road is accounted for by local intra-urban traffic. Much of this traffic is  people going from one end  of Sliema to the other - or to adjoining areas as  St Julians, Gzira, ta Xbiex etc – a trip easily made by bicycle.

• With appropriate encouragement (and traffic calming which makes car use marginally less attractive) people might be tempted to do short trips on foot or by bicycle. It is possible that the reformed public transport will take some of the traffic strain off Tower road.
• There has been some discussion in the press about bicycles on the promenade in Sliema.. Every effort must be made to encourage people to use bicycles for short trips. Banning bicycles from pavements would be a mistake. This is discussed below.

Residential streets of Sliema
Sliema’s streets badly need to be made more attractive and pedestrian-friendly. Everything  possible must be done to upgrade, regenerate  and modernize  Sliema’s drab urban inner-street  environment to mitigate as far a feasible the ugliness which has been inflicted on Sliema by developers. This regeneration must go way beyond mere improvement of pavements.

Given the huge demand for parking space in Sliema, the challenge is to make streets more attractive without decreasing parking space.  

Up until now street design has followed the same old pattern of an asphalt road with a pavement (usually narrow and uninviting) on either side. This sort of residential street design is  largely out-dated. Everywhere looks the same. There is no longer any sense of place. People do not enjoy walking in these streets. The short paved section of High street is an excellent example of how attractive a narrow street can be made to look. The pedestrianising of Bisazza street is also a move in the right direction.

•    Regeneration and modernization of residential streets in selected areas of  Sliema  with low traffic flow  could be conducted as a pilot project for the rest of Malta. This might make it eligible for EU funding. This possibility could be explored. 
•    The fundamental aim is to improve the environmental quality of urban areas by making residential and shopping streets more pedestrian friendly. This might encourage non-car mobility for short journeys and a trend towards eventual increased use of public transport (and help make the transport reform a success) by rendering walking to the nearest bus stop in the back streets of Sliema a less disagreeable experience.  Besides possibly reducing pollution by getting people to walk (or use a bicycle) more, such streets help to foster a community spirit by encouraging healthy informal socializing because the street environment becomes more  inviting and, possibly, the car less convenient so that people meet more often and children have more friends.
•    Essentially streets will cease to consist of a central roadway with (usually narrow) pavements on either side.
•    Streets will now be paved or cobbled from side to side. Pedestrians may walk anywhere on the street and will have priority over cars. Since these ‘environment areas’ will be restricted to roads with little or no through- traffic there will be no obstruction to movement of cars; cars will merely be driven more carefully and at a slower speed.
•    There are streets that have been very severely degraded (as, for instance,  the Ghar-id-Dud extremity of Howard Street)  which deserve  priority, but  selection of streets to be upgraded should, on the whole,  not be haphazard  but carried out after determining which areas can be upgraded without unduly disturbing traffic flow.
•    The areas to be improved must be planned with due consideration of traffic flow.  Rather than a haphazard conversion, street by street, the  upgrading  should be  preferably  be carried out after carefully selecting  small  areas with a view to transforming them into what is referred to as ‘environmental areas’.  (see Evolving Hierarchy for today’s street-orented design agenda. Stephen Marshall, University College London & University of Westminster, http://home.wmin.ac.uk/transport/download/Marshall_on_Buchanan_ETC_2004.pdf  )
•    “Environmental areas”  in sections which are deemed to have little vehicle through movement  will become  peaceful “oases” where pedestrians are prioritized.
•    The aim will be to convert streets into social spaces in these selected areas. This will encourage more pedestrian use and reduce  unnecessary car use. Since pedestrians and children will be given  priority over motor vehicles,  children can meet and play safely outside.  Quality of life will thus take precedence over traffic movement.
•    Streets in these areas will be pedestrianised  to give people more space to walk. There will be no pavement, the road will be given over to pedestrians.
•    Asphalt is replaced by cobbles or paving tiles. It is important to change the road surface texture to  cobblestones or brick; besides making the street more visually  attractive,  it  makes car rides  noisy and prompts motorists to drive at a slow speed.
•    Pedestrians in these streets will be given priority over cars in these streets. Cars may   only drive at strictly controlled slow speeds.
•    In  suitable cases access by cars will be limited to residents’ (or visitors) cars.
•    Since car parking capacity of these streets cannot be sacrificed, a compromise has to be reached. One solution would be to demarcate car parking space with different-coloured bricks or tiles much in the same position as they were on the asphalted road. 
•    Every effort must be made to plant trees to make the street more attractive (and provide shade from the sun in Summer.  
•    Benches can be installed in appropriate sites. 
•    Consider restricting  parking to   non-residents. Introduce or extend residential  parking – possibly after studying impact on business etc
•    Save all  surviving  open spaces in Sliema and improve them
•    Allow bars, restaurants  etc to have outside tables to encourage socialization in the streets.
•    Introduce speed limit signs with severely reduced speeds near institutions such as schools, shopping streets and supermarkets as well as in the vicinity of zebra crossings. This might help reduce car traffic around  schools and motivate students to walk and cycle to school and residents to use a bicycle for shopping. These will also continue to condition drivers to drive more carefully. Speed  limitations also reduce stop-start driving,  especially when combined with replacement of existing traffic  signals at smaller junctions with mini-roundabouts.
•    Shops and grocers near to residences must  be preserved as much as posible to cut down on traffic. Therefore careful consideration must be given to permitting more large supermarkets which encourage car use.
•    Encourage civic pride – organize competitions with prizes for best floral/plant arrangements on window sills,  balconies etc.  

Prioritise health
•    Health impact evaluations of all new road projects should include traffic flow assessments, distances from residences, schools, and  recreational sites.
•    Such evaluations should also focus on the increases in pollution due to greater traffic congestion caused by new property developments in densely built-up areas.
•    Road planning  policies and traffic management design must start to include provision for discouraging further increases in traffic in Sliema. 
•    Impact assessments on new developments.   Impact assessments of new apartment blocks in built up areas.  More importance must be attached to the pollution and carbon costs of construction itself and the potential for subsequent increases in pollution from increased local traffic congestion.
•    Rather than allow centrally situated car parks, pedestrian mobility and cycling should be prioritized.
•    The UK Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT ), along with many other communities  in Europe, recommend  making cycling and walking safer by various measures such as 30 kph speed limit areas (particularly near schools and shopping areas) and road engineering techniques to reduce the volume and speed of vehicular traffic.


Traffic management study
It would not be far from exaggeration to say that 90% of traffic in Sliema is limited to 10% of the  roads in Sliema.

Most of traffic in and out of Sliema is channeled through too few streets which take the brunt of pollution. If a traffic management study is made one of the objects might  be to seek ways of re-distributing  traffic more diffusely to other through- roads  - or, ideally,  find ways of inducing  through- traffic to bypass Sliema altogether. 

Information of distances travelled by traffic in Sliema might give a good idea of how many journeys could otherwise be done by bicycle.

Road hierarchy should be determined in respect of traffic density and link-status of roads; this will provide guidance on which areas are less car-oriented and suitable for conversion  into environmental areas.