Milan at 30 per hour, from 2024 the limit throughout the city

Milan also arrives at 30 per hour. Many Italian cities have introduced or are about to introduce the 30km/h speed limit on most of their streets. He’s been doing it since June Bologna extending the limit that already exists in the historic center to almost all the city streets. The limit of 50 kilometers per hour remains only for expressways. Smaller centers such as Reggio Emilia, Cesena and Olbia already have it. Also Turin approved a similar resolution and now the City Council of Milan, with the favorable opinion of the councilor for Mobility Arianna Censi, has approved an agenda that invites the mayor and the council to «proclaim Milan City 30, establishing the speed limit in urban areas at 30 kilometers per hour starting from 1 January 2024».

The indication comes fromEuropean Union which calls for the introduction of a speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour in all European cities in residential areas and in areas with a large number of cyclists and pedestrians. The request is in a resolution approved on 6 October 2021 by the European Parliament. The goal is to halve the number of fatalities on European roads by 2030 and to have zero fatalities by 2050.

Even the President of the Republic he addressed, in his end-of-year speech, the theme of deaths on the roads. The average of EU countries, in 2020, was 42 deaths as a result of road accidents per million inhabitants. The Italian data is similar. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 1450 people died in accidents in Italy, an increase compared to the previous year. At European level, 37% of deaths are recorded in urban areas and 30% see speeding as a key factor. According to Aci-Istat data in Italy, over 70% of accidents occur in urban areas and among the top three causes overall is speeding, accounting for 43.9% of deaths. In the first 7 days of the year alone, 14 pedestrians died.

Cyclists’ associations are in favor and the United Nations has also launched the Streets for life #Love30 campaign, to humanize the road system. There are many examples abroad: Amsterdam and Copenhagen, but also Madrid and Barcelona, Paris and Brussels which, since January 1, 2021, has seen a 20% decrease in accidents in the first six months of application compared to the average for the 2016-2020 period.

In Italy the car is used for city journeys which in 40% of cases are less than three kilometres. At rush hour the average speed is already lower than the 20km/h which is the speed of a bicycle. With the maximum speed going from 50 to 30 kilometers per hour, the braking time is halved and this leads to fewer accidents, the victims of which are mainly weak road users: pedestrians and cyclists.

The document of the Milan city council which has as its first signature that of Marco Mazzei, councilor of the Lista Sala, foresees the limit of 30 per hour in most of the city and that of 50 on some major roads. Mazzei al Corriere della Sera: «The impact between a car traveling at 50 kilometers per hour and a pedestrian or cyclist is almost always fatal for the light road user, and conversely the impact at 30 kilometers is almost never lethal and offers ample reassurance on the less seriousness of the consequences”.

Opponents say lowering the limits won’t stop those who break the rules and drunk driving. For some it will increase traffic and even pollution and will not convince them to leave the car at home. In the case of Milan, the opposite reaction from the Minister of Infrastructures has already arrived Matthew Salvini. On Twitter you wrote: “I remind the mayor and the Democratic Party that in Milan people would also like to work”.

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