Città30, Salvini’s directive ready: here are the Ministry’s criteria. Lepore: “Twenty fines in 10 days, no chaos”

ROME “The MIT offices have prepared the directive on speed limits in urban centers on which an institutional discussion will be launched. The deputy prime minister and minister Matteo Salvini, who has also been in direct contact with many local administrators of all political stripes today, reiterates his commitment to collaborating to achieve safer cities. Salvini – proud of having wanted the new highway code after decades of waiting – made it clear that a balance must be found so that there are no ineffective or even harmful measures”. This was announced by the Ministry of Transport.

The MIT directive, as explained by the deputy transport minister Galeazzo Bignami of Fratelli d’Italia “is designed to standardize the criteria that can lead to the definition of “zone 30” or “road 30″, to avoid the contagion effect on the whole city”. The idea therefore is to classify the areas based on the presence of certain characteristics, so as not to have the City 30 that the mayor Matteo Lepore wants to apply, but a network of roads with different travel speeds based on the characteristics. “There must be particular conditions to have to go at 30 per hour, for example the presence of schools, hospitals, sensitive places or a particular danger – explains Bignami – factors that can lead to greater exposure of users to road risks. Stringent and not generic requirements”.

Ultimately, City 30 will be more skimpy. “The areas covered by the provision are significantly narrowed – explains Bignami, who knows Bologna well, his hometown – we avoid the indiscriminate spread of an instrument that should have been used with a grain of salt and not everywhere indiscriminately. The 30 kilometers per hour limit cannot be generalized, there is also a difference between individual roads: a narrow and winding one cannot be equated with a wide and straight road. The directive, with immediate adoption, surpasses the ordinances of the Municipality and so the list of roads involved has to be redone, the impact is very limited”.

Lepore: “What chaos, 20 fines in ten days”

“We studied all the streets, we chose them carefully. In Bologna there is no chaos, there is great tranquility. In the first few days there was a procession that blocked traffic as part of a legitimate protest. against the limit of 30. Then there is confusion due to a lot of false news, false information was circulating about the streets where there were checks, they said that we had given thousands of fines. We had given 20 fines in ten days”. The mayor of Bologna explained it Matteo Leporetalking about Città 30 on ‘Porta a Porta’ on Raiuno.

Even the intervention of minister Matteo Salvini in recent days on social media, according to Lepore, “is poorly informed about the reality of Bologna. We have 70% of the streets at 30, but that does not mean the entire urban territory. It means that we have chose the streets on the basis of the ministry’s guidelines: accident data, schools and sensitive points. The way Bologna is made, which is not Milan and not Barcelona, ​​we do not have large avenues, but two-lane roads. We left those larger at 50 and 70, where in July we will have speed cameras authorized by the ministry”.

“Before saying let’s make a directive on all Italian municipalities, let’s compare ourselves. That directive will have completely dangerous impacts if the control tools are reduced.”

Codacons: “We will appeal to the TAR”

“We are waiting to see the text of the MIT directive on speed limits in urban centers and, if it confirms a limitation of the mayors’ powers in matters of road safety, we will challenge the act at the Lazio Regional Administrative Court”. Codacons reports this. , who immediately took to the field in defense of the speed reduction to 30 km/h in Bologna. “All experts agree in stating that measures such as the one adopted in Bologna have multiple positive effects, and very little inconvenience for motorists – explains the president Carlo Rienzi – We remember that excessive speed is one of the main causes of death on Italian roads, and mayors have the power, as well as the duty, to adopt measures to increase road safety and reduce accident rates”.