Penalizing the leadership of our industry would be an own goal, declares the trade association: the sector is worth over 3.2 billion euros… And Italy would be the only European country to introduce mandatory insurance, license plate, helmet and turn signals
June 8, 2023
“Confindustria ANCMA – is the text of the press release issued on 7 June – expresses ‘strong concern’ following the declarations on the reform of the Highway Code released today bythe Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, responding to a question time in the House. In a press release released in the evening, the association takes a stand against the proposal to introduce mandatory insurance, license plates, helmets and indicators for bicycles.
“These are measures that do not go in the direction of obtaining greater securityfor which – reads the press release – a structural and educational commitment is needed to protect those who use the bicycle, who are weak road users”.
“We have already had the opportunity to send a detailed letter to the competent minister last March, through which – remarked the president of ANCMA Paolo Magri – not only have we underlined the value of the cycle sector, which in Italy generates a turnover of over 3.2 billion eurosbut we also highlighted that ours would be the only country in Europewhere, among other things, the use of bicycles is far more widespread than in Italy, to introduce these obligations”.
“Our country – concluded Magri – has a great one attractiveness potential for cyclinghas a growing market, is one of the leading bicycle manufacturers in the Eurozone, expresses an entrepreneurial fabric of excellence made up of over 250 small and medium enterprises, 80% settled between Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont. The association is available to the Government in a constructive manner, but as it was announced, this reform today seems more against the diffusion of the bicycle than in favor of greater safety on the roads: penalizing the leadership of our industry it would be an own goal”.
We’ve been talking about it for years, but it’s not done like this
From tag the bikes it has been talked about for years, in Italy as in France or Great Britain. It is a thorny matter and difficult to solve because the interests at stake are conflicting. From the point of view of the manufacturers and the trade association, the plate (and the insurance) would be a disaster for the sector and the economy. For bicycle users, often convinced that they are saving the environment, the novelty would be an undue cost. For a large part of public opinion, especially in large cities that are becoming ungovernable due to failure to comply with the rules, it would instead be a dutiful measure: license plate and insurance, recognition and consequently responsibility.
It is very difficult to navigate between collective and individual interests and the (urgent) need for security. The least that can be said is this: Minister Salvini moved lightly. The question time in the chamber was not the appropriate forum to announce the measures that must necessarily be agreed with all the parties involved. And this is all the more serious if we consider that Salvini himself, only a few months ago, had solemnly announced weighty technical discussion tables between the parties, involving us too in Rome. Then silence, until yesterday’s statements.
A trivia to close: a European country that had somehow “registered” the bicycles exists, or rather existed until about ten years ago: it is there Swiss, where they started in Lucerne in the 1960s. In the Confederation the plates were metallic and then from 1988 they moved on to self-adhesive: it was a “vignette” costing 5 francs, in practice a compulsory insurance that covered up to two million damages. It has been suppressed since January 2012.
