Across September 2026 the daytime Malta Traffic Index averaged 26.5 — moderate by the standards of our own monitoring. It is built from 507 island-wide readings taken on 30 of the month's 30 days, with every hour from 06:00 to 21:00 counted equally — so a month in which we happened to measure more often at quiet times does not look calmer than it was.

That is up from 23.7 in August 2026 — roughly 12% busier in daytime hours.

The single worst reading of the month was 99, on Thursday 24 September 2026 around 09:00.

Taken as a whole month, Tuesdays were the heaviest day of the week, averaging 31.8; Sundays were the calmest at 6.2. Public holidays are left out of this comparison so that a single day off does not make its weekday look quiet.

The morning peak landed at 09:00 (average 33) and the evening peak at 18:00 (average 39).

Weekdays averaged 27.3 against 9.8 at weekends.

Public holidays are the clearest natural experiment Malta's roads offer: the same network, the same weather, but no commute. We compare the 07:00–09:59 index on each weekday holiday with the same hours on the month's ordinary weekdays.

Paola — Ħal Luqa Rd was the slowest monitored corridor of the month, running on average 43.5% slower than free flow across 502 readings. The table lists the three corridors with the highest average delay.

Coverage was unusually thin on 12 September 2026, 13 September 2026, 30 September 2026 — fewer than 10 readings against the usual 12 to 19 — so those days weigh less in the monthly figures than a fully measured day.

7 readings from Ħal Luqa — Airport showed a travel time more than 5 times the free-flow time and are left out of the corridor figures as unknown — that monitoring point sits on a very short stretch of road, where a queue of a few minutes reads as an extreme delay. The month's highest index reading of 99 was itself driven by one of these readings; it is shown as it was recorded.

1 reading from Regional Rd — San Ġwann showed a travel time more than 5 times the free-flow time and is left out of the corridor figures as unknown — that monitoring point sits on a very short stretch of road, where a queue of a few minutes reads as an extreme delay.

333 readings from Coast Rd — Salina taken before 19 September 2026 are excluded from the corridor table: until then that point was reading the same road segment as Ħamrun Bypass.

316 readings from Fgura — Triq Hompesch taken before 18 September 2026 are excluded from the corridor table: until then that point was reading the same road segment as Paola — Ħal Luqa Rd.

Schools reopened on 30 September, the month's last day, so the effect of the new school year on the morning peak will appear in the October 2026 report.

The headline figure is the daytime index (06:00–21:00, each hour weighted equally). The plain average of every reading in the month, night-time included, was 23.2; it is not used for month-to-month comparison because the share of overnight readings has changed as our sampling schedule was tuned.