In fact, they wrote it. “Reducing car speeds by 20 km/h allows noise to be reduced by half (around -3 decibels) near traffic lanes. And thus giving more space to other sounds of the city, such as birdsong”, reads Bolonha. Città 30 website that illustrates the advantages of the 30 km speed limit that comes into force from Tuesday. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, points the finger at Mayor Matteo Lepore’s measure: “The mayor of Bologna decided that people travel at 30 kilometers per hour in the city. kilometers per hour from the maximum limit, birdsong will be heard better. I think that the right to birdsong and the audibility of their songs must be balanced with the right to work of hundreds of thousands of people because fining those who travel at 36 kilometers per hour does not mean environmental protection”, says the deputy prime minister speaking at the inauguration of the railway connection between Turin airport and the city. “Sometimes, in Parliament – adds Salvini – we find ourselves in ideological confrontations even on bridges, tunnels and level crossings. There are no sovereignist or pro-European bridges, right or left, a bridge is a bridge, a railway is a railway. I think environmental protection should go hand in hand with the human right to live and work.”
Lepore’s response is cryptic: “I think the right to birdsong and the audibility of birdsong must be balanced with the right to work for hundreds of thousands of people.” “The Municipality – the mayor then clarifies – does not say not to take a car, even if I think there are too many cars in Bologna”, but that “you can travel by car and walk more slowly on the streets at 30: you can easily go to the work and we will see that congestion will improve thanks to better traffic flow”, he concludes.
For the Ministry of Transport, however, the 30 km/h limit throughout the city of Bologna “does not seem to be a reasonable choice because the problems for citizens (particularly for workers) risk outweighing the benefits for society. road safety which, however, continues to be one of the absolute priorities for minister Matteo Salvini”, we read in a note from MIT, which explains: “the Porta Pia ministry is ready to start an immediate discussion with the Bolognese administration to verify solutions alternatives and avoid forcing and escaping forward which then risks being denied even by judges, as has already happened in Milan with regard to the obligation for heavy vehicles to have blind spot devices”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
