The Milan city council on Monday night approved a motion lowering the northern city’s speed limit to 30 kph (18.5 miles) starting in 2024. The current limit is 50 kph (30 miles).
The move has met with some criticism from Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the rightwing League party which has governed Lombardy for decades, who said, “I remind the mayor (center-left member Giuseppe Sala) and the (center-left Democratic Party) PD that people want to work”, implying that their jobs would be hampered by such a low limit.
However, according to those who presented the text, the measure would not negatively affect average journey times. On the contrary, it would make the movement of motor vehicles more fluid “by avoiding acceleration and braking which consume more fuel, produce more smog and are more dangerous for safety”. Not only that: it would be able to increase the average speed of traffic flow also “thanks to the use of technologies”, such as green waves.
Maurizio Lupi of the center-right Noi Moderati (We Moderates) party said “there’s no limit to ridiculousness: forcing the whole city of Milan to move at the top speed of 30 kph, far from increasing safety, will be a powerful limit to what has always marked the city and what is its trademark all over the world: productivity”.
He said people would be forced to break the limit and said “don’t try to disguise a move to get cash [with fines] as one aimed at road safety”.
The local PD replied “there is no price on road safety” and said the new limit “will most certainly save lives”.
The argument behind the proposal states that lowering the speed limit to 30 km/h per hour in the city would help reduce road accidents and improve the quality of life and the air. The measure has already been implemented in other Italian cities of smaller size, such as Parma and Bologna.
“The impact between a car travelling at 50 km/h and a pedestrian or cyclist is almost always fatal for the light road user, and that on the contrary the impact at 30 km/h is almost never lethal and offers ample reassurance that the consequences are less serious,” states the document, as cited by News Italy 24.
The proposed legislation sources scientific evidence that between reaction time and hitting the brakes of a vehicle moving at 30 km/h the braking distance is 13 meters, while at 50 km/h it travels about 28 meters before stopping.
