{"id":9,"date":"2010-09-01T15:47:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T13:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peritmarkjohn.com\/blog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2010-11-13T00:38:57","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T23:38:57","slug":"the-maltese-road-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peritmarkjohn.com\/blog\/the-maltese-road-network\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maltese Road Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Post written by\u00a0Perit Mark John Scicluna.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cExcellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.\u201d - John W. Gardner<\/strong><\/pre>\n
The\u00a0Republic of Malta<\/strong><\/a>, is an archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, c. 93km south of Sicily and c. 288 km east of Tunisia. As of the 2007 census, there are c. 410,290 inhabitants on the 300 sq. km island, making it the most densely populated country in the European Union (EU)<\/a> and the seventh mostly populated country in the world<\/a> with c. 1367 inhabitants \/ sq. km.<\/p>\n
\"The
Birds eye view of the Maltese archipelago. Photo courtesy of Roberto Benetti.<\/p><\/div>\n
Vehicle Ownership<\/strong><\/p>\n
Public transport and personal private vehicles are the only available modes of transport on the mainland. With the public transport service leaving a lot to be desired, the general public had no other option other than to invest in private vehicles as their main mode of transport. With c. 750 vehicles per 1000 persons,<\/a> Malta has become one of the countries\u00a0in the world with the most number of vehicles per capita. This value tends to increase yearly.<\/p>\n
With more than 300,000 vehicles on the Maltese road network:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. The amount of parking spaces is usually not enough.<\/li>\n
  2. The air quality in the most trafficked areas decreases,<\/li>\n
  3. The amount of traffic accidents is still high.<\/li>\n
  4. Noise pollution increases.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Road Network<\/strong><\/p>\n
    \"Maltese
    Road Length by Category NSO 2001<\/p><\/div>\n
    Arterial Roads<\/strong><\/p>\n
    The backbone of the Maltese road network consist of nine arterial roads forming 185km of paved arterial and distributor roads, with 137 km of arterial and distributor roads located in Malta and the remaining 48 km found in Gozo.<\/p>\n
    Out of 185km of arterial and distributor roads, c. 90km are arterial roads. These are numbered from 1 to 9 for identification purposes:<\/p>\n