Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right Lega party and transport minister has proposed a reform of the traffic road code.
The reform is focused on increasing penality for the types of collisions that have a large echo in the media, such as when the person responsible was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but in reality it risks increasing the main factor in road mortalities: speed.
In fact the reform will limit mayors’ ability to create new cycle routes or car-free ‘school streets’, or to keep polluting cars out of city centres. It also restrict the possibilities to deploy speed traps.
Campaigners held demonstrations in dozens of Italian cities last week, calling for the reform to be scrapped and re-written in consultation with bereaved families.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But the Clean Cities campaign group - backed by Europe’s Transport & Environment (T&E) collective - claims the government is using the issue as an excuse to attack sustainable mobility measures.
“In fact, most of the text is focused on the types of collisions that have a large echo in the media, such as when the person responsible was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but which only amount to five per cent of total road killings.”
In Milan, an ordinance forcing buses and lorries to install blind spot sensors in a bid to reduce cyclist deaths met with similar kickback from the transport minister last year.
Andrea Casu, MP for the main opposition party Partito Democratico, says the government is carrying on “an absurd crusade against the powers of mayors, against cycling and sustainable mobility.”
"Instead of strengthening local public transport in crisis by using at least part of the 22 billion euro we spend every year on environmentally harmful subsidies, Minister Salvini writes a Road Code that looks to the past rather than the future of mobility,” he tells Euronews Green.
With EU elections around the corner, Magliulo sees a connection to Salvini’s drive to push this reform through, positioning Lega as the party applying law and order to road traffic.
The original article contains 1,332 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Salvini is a fucking clown and a shame to Italy.
Edit: he’s not the only clow. There’s a full circus regarding politics.
