Autostrade, will it really be possible to go beyond 130 times on some routes? The proposal and the map – Corriere.it

In addition to drafting the new Highway Code, the goal of Matteo Salvini, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, is also to think about “speed limits on motorway sections – he said in an interview in recent days to Radio 24 — We are doing all the evaluations because there are large stretches of motorway where on the German model it could also be thought of increasing the speed limits, given the low accident rate because unfortunately the vast majority of the dead are no longer on the highway but are on extra-urban roads, so with common sense they could increase in some stretches and decrease in others, we are working on it with the technicians, speed is not a political choice”.

Speed ​​boost requirements

The project that the ministry is working on, in detail, consists in bringing the speed limit from the current 130 kilometers per hour to 150 along those stretches of motorway considered safer due to two requirements: there is a Tutor system for speed control (a detection of the average value through the cameras, which observe the journey time of a motorist from point A to point B) and is made up of three or more lanes in each direction, so that traffic can flow better and cause fewer accidents. The idea is not new, not even in the Lega house, which has made it its forte over the years. In 2001 Pietro Lunardi, then Minister of Infrastructure and Transport during the Berlusconi government, had advanced the same idea, which then returned in 2019 and again in 2021 with Salvini’s party. That text, in addition to the current proposal that the government is apparently analyzing, established the third requirement of draining asphalt on the routes in question for increasing the speed limit.

The affected traits

In Italy, the motorways reach a total of 7,016.4 km. Of these, around 1,800 have three lanes in each direction and a few hundred have four. As regards Aspi – which controls around 3,000 km of Italian motorways, 1,181.6 km are three-lane, 76 four-lane and two even five-lane (located on the A8, for which a further expansion is about to be finalized which will bring the total of lanes above 5). As for i Tutor systems, on the other hand, along the A1 there are four and two on the A14. According to the characteristics required for the increase of the speed limit to 150 km/h, the affected segments could be some of the A1 Milan-Naples, the A4 Milan-Brescia, the A14 Bologna-Taranto, the A8 Milan- Varese and the A26 from Genoa to Piedmont.

The meeting with the sector

The decline in accidents in recent years makes the context rather favorable for deputy prime minister Salvini’s proposal to pass. In 2004, 14,000 were registered, but in 2021 they have almost halved to 7,631, a decrease of 16% compared to the previous two years. The next step, it is assumed, could be the presentation of a draft at a meeting organized with sector bodies and associations by the end of the monthalready scheduled for discussion of the new Highway Code.