Road accidents, PD proposal: more responsibility for the 'stronger user'

'We want to move on from saying to the pedestrian and cyclist 'think for yourself to protect yourself' to the concept that the state and, in the fall, the bodies that have to deal with this issue, create the conditions to make the roads safer'. In what way? For example, by introducing into our road traffic legislation 'the concept of a hierarchy of responsibilities', i.e. that the strongest user, the one driving the vehicle 'preponderant in terms of mass, speed and power', is also the one to whom to attribute - as a priority and without prejudice to the obligation of all users to comply with the Highway Code - a sort of 'reinforced responsibility' in the event of an accident. The MP Valentina Ghio thus explains to Parliament 24 one of the most innovative aspects of the bill of her first signature 'Provisions on safety, development and promotion of active mobility', recently presented to Montecitorio: the road user who drives the preponderant vehicle 'is the one who has more responsibility, so he must be more careful with vulnerable users'.

Bill AC 2523 also introduces a package of measures to encourage walking and cycling and to protect weak users, especially pedestrians: for example, some of the regulations provide for pedestrians to be given priority in most situations and for the width of pavements to be widened to two metres, also in view of the fact that 'pavements are the place of safety and also the place of sociality that invites people to walk'. The Pdl then stipulates that overtaking a bicycle by a car is only possible with a distance of one and a half metres.