Credits: File Photo
I read that in Malta they are offering up to 25,000 euros to young people under 30 to give up their driver’s license for five years, and I didn’t understand the point of this maneuver. But out of curiosity I went to look into it and check some numbers: the island is tiny, 317 km², and there are about 457,000 cars in circulation, narrow streets, almost no parking, traffic jams everywhere… moreover, in recent years the population has grown a lot, going from 440,000 to about 550,000 residents, so space is even more limited, and in projection the island will become totally saturated with cars.
The government’s solution has therefore been to pay someone not to drive, in fact those who participate receive 5,000 euros per year for five years, free public transport, and must promise never to get in a car, not even outside the island. If they are caught, fines, repayment of the money, and legal problems follow. Since we are talking about a significant amount of money, the number of possible participants is limited; the first hundred young people have already accepted and with them half of the planned fund is already gone. A measure to reduce suffocating traffic, but the actual impact is minimal: even if two hundred people give up their license, thousands of cars remain and the streets are clogged.
For me this is just a patch on a broken system, you are pushed to use the car because living, working, going out, seeing someone all require driving, and the car in this sense is not a choice but an imposed condition, then they come up with this proposal where if you give it up they pay you. The system that pushes car ownership is the problem, not the drivers; it’s the cars, always the cars, that occupy space, air, and time, and that decide how much real freedom you really have. Malta now shows that you have to pay someone to stop being a slave to a car.
And the other thing that leaves me puzzled is: after five years with these 25,000 euros, didn’t it occur to the Maltese government that the young people could just buy a car themselves practically at the state’s expense?
References: https://www.transport.gov.mt/land/sustainable-transport/driving-licence-surrender-scheme-7568