The data shows that the bicycle is not the problem of road safety, on the contrary, it is the solution. But in Italy the problem is also cultural
What is an acceptable number of cyclists who died on the road? Easy: zero. It is the only possible number, the number to which we must all point: legislators, local administrators, motorists, human being. Unfortunately it is a science fiction number, far from reality how to see an alien to land in the courtyard and go out walking with the antennas on the head. The account – after the three friends overwhelmed yesterday in Terlizzi, in the province of Bari – is 130 cyclists killed since the beginning of the year on Italian roads. There were 119 men and 11 women, 11 clashes occurred only in the last 15 days, already 5 in this principle of August, 4 only in Puglia. Many victims over 65 years of age (61 from the beginning of 2025). Lombardy is the first region in this terrible ranking, with 32 dead cyclists, followed by Emilia-Romagna with 22 and Veneto at an altitude of 16. It is the sad count that provides ASAPS, Association of supporters and friends of the traffic police, which re-elaborates the data aggregated by the ACI and Istat. A national emergency, a chilling number, which also does not take into account all the other victims of this carnage: for the families of those who do not return home these are events that have the effect of a bombing, the past, the present and often also the future, shake the soil. It is an unacceptable balance, but we reiterate it: the only possible and desirable number would be zero.
EMERGENCY
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Why do you die in Italy so much by bicycle? Unfortunately, there is a risk of life every time you decide to go out with this means that should represent the future: clean, green, the emblem of traveling freely. Everywhere except with us. Because on Italian roads the law of the strongest applies, as in the jungle: the truck beats the car, the car beats cyclists and pedestrians. Speed, speed issues. It is a national emergency and yet it seems that the security topic does not interest anyone, until it is personally touched. Those who have experienced this atrocity in some cases choose to dedicate life to a battle for those who have lost it. Marco Cavorso does it for his son Tommaso, a young runner killed by a motorist who was overtaking against a continuous strip. It was 2010, Tommaso was 13 years old, he was training. And his father, after fifteen years of battle, must admit that he feels endured, when it’s okay. “It is a problem of culture, of education, we are now in the second generation, even parents are now rude.”
The Scarponi Foundation
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And now the topic of road safety has also become part of political polarization, as if it made sense to cheer pro or against road violence. Marco Scarponi in 2018 created the Michele Scarponi Foundation to spread road culture starting from schools. He wanted him to no longer happen to any family what he had to and have to suffer his, when his brother Michele – who was training for the Giro d’Italia – was killed less than two kilometers of the house. It was April 22, 2017, since then Marco has started to travel around Italy and does not tire of telling what happened to Michele, what could happen to each of us. But one account is the boys, who understand and learn, one account is politics, which seems deaf. The changes to the highway code are unfortunately always the result of a compromise between opposite visions. What is done is little, and not very effective. The speed kills, and in Italy many road murders are caused by the lack of checks on speed. From the lack of concrete actions. In England there is the model of the three “and”: engage, educated, enforce (involve, educate, enforce). We in the letter and we have not yet arrived, we remained at the ABC: what is done is left to initiatives such as those of the Scarponi Foundation. It is evident that it is not enough. Another question that involves habits and education: abroad speak of “Safety in Numbers”: the more people on bike there are on the streets, and the more the roads become intrinsically safer for all users, not only for those who ride. This is demonstrated by data from the Netherlands and Denmark: the European countries where the bicycle is most used are also those where road safety is higher. So the bicycle is not only not the problem of road safety, but it is the solution. The data and statistics demonstrate this. But it has not always been like this: Amsterdam and Copenhagen have done a job in depth, investing massively on bicycles, infrastructures and safety in general.
A cultural problem
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We talked about cyclists killed, because language has its weight. They did not disappear, and not even dead: they were killed. And it is never a car or a truck that killed, but the person who was driving. They are not tragic fatality, it is never the fate that awaited you on the state road, rather it is a craftsman who has turned without giving you precedence, as in the case of Michele Scarponi, or a truck driver who has crushed you and pretended not to see you, as in the case of Davide Rebellin. They are not accidents: they are murders. There are no pirate cars, the trucks do not go crazy and the roads are simply roads, they are not killers. Objects do not make decisions, do not choose, have no responsibility. We instead yes. And if there is a massacre, there is someone who is guilty of massacre. It is not the words that fear us, but the possibility that a life can be off in a moment, because on the other side someone has not seen, had the sun in the face, was using the phone, sending a message, listening to music, or going too strong. Let’s try to think about it the next time we leave the house with our bike: let’s try to consider that it is the last time, and that we will no longer return. Or worse: that we have to survive who we love. Even by changing the language we can take a step forward: to responsible for those who are driving is serious. Unfortunately, the problem is not only road safety. We are faced with a cultural problem that is not new in our country: do not feel the question of safety on roads as an urgency of all, which concerns everyone’s life, the space we live together, coexistence. Unfortunately, ignore this problem contributes to increasing that sad balance that we talked about in the beginning: they win indifference and arrogance. As unfortunately it clearly shows from social comments to the tragedy of Terlizzi. The killed cyclists are also mocked, humiliated, insulted. The Scarponi Foundation has embarked on a struggle – even legal – against social hatred: it is like emptying the sea with a teaspoon, but if we never start drowning everyone.
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