a rain of fines comes, that changes

Speed ​​cameras under the house, speed cameras as natural decoration elements of our neighborhoods – that’s the direction. The natural consequence could be a veritable barrage of fines for motorists. Everything depends on the vote on the conversion of the Decree of Simplification into Law that the Chamber of Deputies will make in the coming days, effectively confirming the text approved by the Senate last Friday. There are no obstacles at the moment.

It is a true “mini-reform” of the Highway Code and the main novelty is precisely the change in speed controls in urban centers. Fixed radars could also appear (very) soon in urban neighborhoods and local streets, where they are now banned. The last word is always held by the Prefect, who gives the authorization “through an analysis of the accidents that have occurred and their causes, also to protect pedestrians and vulnerable users.”

Realistically, speed cameras could find a place on the edges of roads where the risk is the investment of the pedestrian, or rather those streets and streets of cities with schools, homes, businesses, services where there are crosswalks “in risk”.

Highway code: the “urban bike path” arrives, which changes

Among the many innovations there is also a package to protect cyclists: the introduction of the “urban bike path” with a single carriageway, with paved platforms and sidewalks, with a speed limit not exceeding 30 km / h, defined by special signage vertical and horizontal, with priority for bicycles.

To also underline the novelty of the “bi-directional cycle” on city streets where the maximum speed limit is less than or equal to 30 km / h or in part of a limited traffic zone, bicycles can also circulate in the opposite direction to the only one. . direction of all other vehicles, along the bi-directional cycle lane present on the road itself. The power can be provided regardless of the width of the road, the presence and position of vehicle parking areas and the mass of vehicles authorized to transit.

Also valid is the circulation of three-wheeled scooters on the highway and “new powers for vouchers and parking aids, which will have greater sanctioning powers in parking bans”. They are not ideas and projects catapulted from above, but proposals that come directly from Italian municipalities, dealing with a mobility to reinvent in the time of Covid-19.

The timing of the reviews also changed due to the health emergency. Vehicles whose inspection expired on July 31, 2020 will have until October 31, while vehicles that will be subjected to the same controls before September 30, 2020 are authorized until December 31, 2020, as well as circulation of vehicles until February 28, 2021. undergo the same controls before December 31 of this year.

Riccardo De Corato, regional security adviser for the Lombardy Region, speaks of “a barrage of fines that come to Milanese motorists”, which puts him in controversy: “Get ready. Among the new speed cameras in the city, the limit speed is 30 km / hour, the tracks are very dangerous bike lanes that continue to be created despite protests from citizens and strong promotion of scooters that roam freely without rules and with very few fines, the Milan City Council has waged an ideological war against motorists. ”Or perhaps it is just a duty to protect pedestrians? The debate is open.

Speed ​​cameras and fines, what is needed to make them “valid”