I've survived my first visit to Malta, including four days of driving round the islands! In most of continental Europe, the rule of the road is to drive on the right; in the Britain, you drive on the left; in Malta you drive in the middle!
The first great surprise on Maltese roads was the variety of old and unusual vehicles on the road. The Maltese climate is similar to southern California - and a relatively poor environment for tinworm - so older vehicles can be kept running for many years.
Since independence, Maltese economic and foreign policy has effectively prevented the large-scale import of newer vehicles - so the old survivors have been kept running instead.
Malta was a British colony until 1964, with a strong British military presence on the islands until 1979. Since Malta drives on the left, with RHD cars, British makes and models dominate the Maltese roads.
Spotted in quantity:
In smaller numbers, names like Humber, Hillman, Vanguard, and Standard can all be found, along with many others I'm too young to remember.
Followers of Italian and French automotive fashion will also find a visit to Malta worthwhile, as would those interested in Honda and Datsun. German models, on the other hand, are few and far between - I think it's something historical.
Most of the cars are basic family models. Maltese roads are decidedly unsuited for high performance motoring, so sports cars and top-end models are very uncommon. In a week of touring, we only spotted one MGB sports car.
Fans of the Ford Transit are also in for a real treat, since nearly every Airport and Hotel transfer vehicle is Transit, and many are also used for local bus services.
The minibuses, all painted bright red, are licensed for 14 passengers plus driver (i.e., forward facing seats - we didn't see any bench- seat crewbuses). All ages of transit are represented, although again far more older vehicles than would be expected - with Mk1 and Mk2 in daily commercial use.
Transit vans and pickups are also to be seen in fair numbers, with Bedford and Comer vans also to be found in quantity.
The buses are a tourist attraction in themselves, since there's been an effective ban on imports of buses since the early 1970s. Some pre-war vehicles are still in service, and there are plenty of Bedford and Leyland types which were retired decades ago in the UK. Most buses are individually owned and driven - and many are customised by the drivers with religious shrines on the engine cover. Colour schemes are now standardised (yellow/orange on Malta and grey/red on Gozo) so buses can be moved from route to route to meet demand (each route used to have its own colours). See the Malta Bus web site for pictures.
(There's apparently a government programme to renew many of the buses on the roads with new models imported from China in late 2001 and early 2002.)
Maltese roads are, by British standards, generally in very poor condition, and decidedly unsuited for fast cruising. However, they are enough for local traffic.
Speed limits are standard throughout the islands: 40 kph (25 mph) in towns, and just 65 kph (40 mph) in rural areas. However, the state of the roads is such that localised limits of 30 kph (18 mph) are common, even on some stretches of rural dual-carriageway, and effective speeds aren't much higher in many other places. However, the small scale of the islands means that low speeds aren't a problem: Malta is only 28km from end to end, and Gozo is less than 14 km long, so even long trips are still fairly short.
Road surface quality varies enormously. Many minor roads are still completely unsurfaced, and even some major roads seem to have never seen a road-roller. On many roads, you're lucky if the potholes have all been filled in. At the other end of the scale, there are some roads where there's no trace of an original smooth surface: The asphalt has been laid a shovelfull at a time, and flattened only by the passage of traffic over the years. It's like driving on rough cobblestones, but far worse!
In towns, good roads are often polished smooth by the passage of traffic, with tyres squealing on corners. There's an ongoing programme of grinding the surface back to a reasonable quality.
("Cart Tracks", deep ruts which have been ground into the bedrock throughout the islands, are ancient pre-historic monuments and should not be confused with modern roads and tracks. Conventional archaeology has found dating of the ruts almost impossible, with most estimates at around 4-5000 BC. However, new evidence is beginning to suggest that the cart tracks, along with the various 'temple' sites could be at least 11 thousand years old, and date from before the end of the last Ice Age.)
The rules of the road are not too unexpected for British motorists, but adherence to the rules is patchy. Certainly traffic should drive on the left, and most does, but you'll occasionally find someone using the shoulder the wrong way. Passing is mainly on the right, but also on the left. A Stop sign is treated like a Give Way, and a Give Way sign seems to imply that you can merge slowly with the other traffic stream. A double white line down the middle of the road seems to mean no overtaking, unless you're in a hurry. Roundabouts can be a bit hairy, especially in a country where there are still plenty of older traffic circles with priority to traffic entering on some legs only. The speed limits are widely ignored.
Horns are used far more than in northern Europe or the US, with different lengths and patterns of tooting having different meanings. Most common is a very short blast just to raise awareness of another car, either during a questionable overtaking manoeuver or at a merge where priority is unclear. This is also used to awaken sleeping pedestrians or animals on the road. Longer repeated blasts are used on narrow twisty roads with poor visibility, in the hope avoiding a head on collision on a bend. And very long single blasts are usually objecting to another vehicle obstructing the carriageway. The horn is used so much, and usually without malice or aggression, that you become accustomed to it.
The one good thing about the standard of driving is that whenever the road situation becomes ambiguous, everyone slows down. Even on the main freeway through the Valletta suburbs, the traffic on the main carriageway sometimes stops to allow traffic to join!
The actual road alignments aren't too bad considering the traffic speeds, although finding a double hairpin bend on a stretch of seemingly high-speed rural dual-carriageway can come as a bit of a shock! (That's why there's a 30 km/h speed limit!)
While most surfaced roads are numbered, but the numbers don't appear on signposts. Route signposting is generally done with pointers towards the next town only. Even an important route, like the main road between Gozo and Valletta, isn't fully signposted in both directions: Valletta appears and disappears from the signposts at random, and is missing at some key turnings.
Most signposting is white on blue, with arrows on rectangular signs. Tourists attractions are increasingly signposted with white on brown. There seems to be little control of advertising and unauthorised signs. A major route signpost could well be accompanied by an advertisment for a pub or cafe.
Warning signs are little used. For the hairpin bends on the Gozo road, there's a warning sign for the second hairpin in each direction, but not for the first! The warnings for roundabouts and traffic signals are usually so close to the hazard that you've already worked out which it's going to be before you see the sign.
Parking in most urban areas is nearly impossible. Valletta and Floriana allow permit parking only. Mdina, the former capital, allows permit access only, with no parking even for residents. Tourist car parks near the major attractions are attended by old men who accept 'donations' in exchange for looking after your car. Some are clearly identified with a uniform, and will help you to lock up the car and give advice on the nearby attractions, others just stand there until you give them money to go away. Apparently theft from rental cars is a major problem, but we didn't notice anything.
Bus and ferry travel is much easier. Bus journeys are extremely cheap, with prices starting from just 10c, and the passenger ferries across Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour are only 25c.
There's only one inter-island car ferry in the Maltese islands, between Malta and Gozo. The crossing takes about 25 minutes, with at least three vessels on the short crossing (and a fourth running between Gozo and Valletta). Tickets for the ferry are only sold at the Gozo terminal, so you only pay when you want to return to Malta.
We used two major guides and three different road maps on our trip.
The two guides were Baedeker's and Lonely Planet. Both perfectly good for a tourist visit, although both obviously written a year or so back and not quite up-to-date with prices or new attractions.
The main map we used was that included with the Baedeker guidebook. At a scale of 1:50000, it covers the whole islands on one sheet and highlights main roads and built-up areas. Most minor roads are included, although many are little more than dirt tracks. Worst problem with the Baedeker map was that major intersections weren't shown in enough detail to be of any use.
The other map we brought with us was the Insight Travel Map, a robust laminated map. While showing more detail of Valetta and Mdina, the roads detail isn't as good. It would do for tourists on organised tours or using public buses, but doesn't make the cut for drivers having to navigate around the island.
In Malta, we bought a copy of the "RMF Road Maps of Malta". This includes the whole island at a scale of 1:16750 (nearly 4" to a mile), and is organised into two sections. The first half is a road map showing the main routes to and through the towns and villages, and the second half a detailed street plan of each village. This is the only map which I would recommend for motorists.
The official 1:25000 topographic maps, covering the islands on three sheets, are no longer available from bookstores. Copies can apparently still be obtained by visiting the relevant government offices in Floriana. (I wish I'd found that out sooner!) However, most of the 1:25000 maps are reproduced in the Sunflower Landscapes book "Malta, Gozo and Comino", ISBN: 1-85691-152-7. Since the book is mainly a guide to walking in the islands, the difficult roads around the Valletta conurbation aren't included.
Not so much roads related, but an idea of where on the islands you can drive your non-Roadgeek friends.
Malta has some of the most important ancient monuments in the world, including the earliest stone buildings discovered so far anywhere in the world The 'temple culture' flourished long before the pyramid builders in Egypt, and remains are visible throughout the islands.
The Hypogeum is one of the wonders of Malta, a three-story underground temple, which contained the remains of around 30,000 bodies. Sadly, the huge number of visitors caused damage to the ancient wall paintings, and the structure is now limited to around 60 visitors per day.
The surface temples are
During the Crusades, Malta was a key Christian outpost in the heathen lands. The Knights Templar, a semi-monastic order of soldiers, fortified the islands during a series of wars against the Turks
Key monuments are the fortified cities of Valetta and Floriana, the Three Cities. Elsewhere in the islands, the silent city of Mdina and the Citadel at Rabat on Gozo.
The Knights of St John were eventually replaced by the British as guardians of Malta's peace, and the British Army engineers decided on an extended defensive scheme to cope with an increased threat from modern artillery. The scheme involves a defensive line right across the island, known collectively as the Victoria Lines.
Malta was critical to Allied operations in the Med during the war from 1939-1945. Difficult to find is a 200' sound mirror, one of only two constructed in the years leading up to the Second World War.