Road safety, “Città 30” or how to overturn the mobility paradigm: people and not cars at the center

ROME – For the World day in memory of road victimsdeliberated in 2005 by the UN on the proposal of the various organizations of the victims’ families, the Luigi Guccione Onlus Foundation brings together in Rome parliamentarians, researchers, university professors, Aci, the Capitoline council for road safety, soft mobility and its sustainability and the associations that deal with active mobility: from Legambiente to #Vivinstradafrom Asvis to I love itfromRome and Lazio Pedestrians Association Federcamminacittà to the network Walk City Italy.

An institutional recognition. Seat of connection the CNEL, “the third Chamber of the State – explains Giuseppe Guccione, president of the homonymous Foundation – with legislative powers and fourth institutional level of the Republic: gathering here on the occasion of the world day is a recognition to the victims of the road”. There Foundation has long been waging a battle for “30 cities and safe and vital streets”, signed by 17 national and international organizations presented in Rome on 19 July.

The victims of the first half of 2022. In the meeting that took place, Istat communicated the latest data relating to road accidents from January to June: compared to the same period of 2021, they show an increase in accidents with injuries (+24.7%), victims ( +15.3%) and wounded (+25.7%). In just six months, 81,437 accidents caused 1,450 deaths and 108,996 injuries: an average of 450 accidents, 8 deaths and 602 injuries every day. The increase in victims in 2022 was recorded, in particular, on extra-urban roads (+20%) while it was more limited on urban roads (+11%) and motorways (+10%).

What to do then? Remember the victims killed and those injured by road violence. Support them with a law for assistance and for fair, just, effective justice. Act to change the mobility system with people and not cars at the centre. The city of Bologna has signed the manifesto City 30, now it’s up to the others. Senator Gabriella Di Girolamo (Commission for Environment, Ecological Transition, Public Works) announced her intention to present to the Senate, as Secretary of the Chamber, the bill for assistance to victims drawn up by the Luigi Guccione Foundation, and the Hon. Santillo. “I will ask President Conte to sign the bill too,” Di Girolamo said. Also available from the Hon. Andrea Casu (Democratic Party), Chamber Secretary in the Chamber of Deputies, who undertook to sign the two bills – City 30 and victim assistance law – and to propose them to the Chamber, on the model of Spain approved by the government in May 2021.

What will change with the two laws. City30 aims to overturn the paradigm of mobility by putting people at the center and not cars to make cities safer and more livable. The law of assistance for road victims elaborated by the Luigi Guccione Foundation, was voted on by 16,201 people on Change.org. “We can finance it – explains the president of the Foundation – with the funds already provided for by a 1982 law, never applied until now and which collects 10.50% of the available motor liability. Figures not reported by the Regions, neither incoming nor outgoing: on average, 1500/1600 million euros are available every year and for forty years we have not known what happens to them”.

Next appointment. There is still a long way to go: the aim is to get the manifesto approved in all the cities of Italy. The next step will be a meeting that the Hon. Casu pledged to promote between the mayor Gualtieri (the Municipality of Rome is among the 17 promoters and signed it last July 19), the signatory organizations of the Manifesto “Cities 30 Safe and Vital Streets” and the Commission of the Capitoline Consulta for road safety, soft mobility and its sustainability. Objective: to make the manifesto City30 a resolution by Rome, a good practice that can be replicated as Bologna, Parma and Turin already did in November. The foundation will continue to meet the mayors and councilors of the Italian cities interested in becoming City30.