Blood on the streets

You didn't write they hate them in Malta Dammit you wrote:

Do they cause the traffic jams in Malta?
They could suit Malta's medieval street plan (like London's) since they can turn round tight bends. They had easy access for people with Buggies. Johnson had a bugbear about them perhaps because of an negative interaction he had with one? (Speculation)

Huge jams, they can only just fit down the roads and round (some) corners when there is nothing else there- add in some other traffic and they simply get stuck.