Italy: motorway speed to be increased to 150km/h

unkel

The Italian transport minister, Altero Matteoli, has proposed to increase the speed limit on 3 lane motorways from 130km/h to 150km/h. Only for big safe cars with big engines though

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peasant

A case of "form follows function" then

I never understood Italy's staggerd (by engine size) speed limit btw, makes no sense in my mind, at least not anymore when even a one litre car can do 150.

IIMII

unkel wrote: »

The Italian transport minister, Altero Matteoli, has proposed to increase the speed limit on 3 lane motorways from 130km/h to 150km/h. Only for big safe cars with big engines though

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And a zero alcohol limit for the newly licensed..

SV

peasant wrote: »

A case of "form follows function" then

I never understood Italy's staggerd (by engine size) speed limit btw, makes no sense in my mind, at least not anymore when even a one litre car can do 150.

They can do the speed alright but whether they're safe at that speed is another story altogether..Most small engined cars wouldn't be, though a fair few would be.
Then again the same goes for big engined cars..so I guess the speed limit thing could probably do with reform.

IIMII

They already have 5,000 killed on the roads there annually, and I can't see it dropping if the bring this in. Particularly as many drive like rally drivers

SV

IIMII wrote: »

They already have 5,000 killed on the roads there annually, and I can't see it dropping if the bring this in. Particularly as many drive like rally drivers

The amount killed on the roads there in relation the population is more or less the same as Ireland.

Max Power1

IIMII wrote: »

And a zero alcohol limit for the newly licensed..

I like that Idea, at least their ministers dont chicken out of sensible legislation because their equivalent of boggers want to drive home when drunk

SV

Max Power1 wrote: »

I like that Idea, at least their ministers dont chicken out of sensible legislation because their equivalent of boggers want to drive home when drunk

Do you know that blue strepsils contain alcohol in them(pretty high mg if I recall)
A zero limit would mean if you have a very bad throat and take one of these you wouldn't be allowed to drive.

A zero limit is a stupid, stupid idea.

meditraitor

IIMII wrote: »

They already have 5,000 killed on the roads there annually, and I can't see it dropping if the bring this in. Particularly as many drive like rally drivers

I have to agree, speeding around like rally drivers is a national passtime, even on the 4 lane motorways its pretty scary....They dont think anything about cutting across 3 lanes at 120km / hour

Viejo Zorro

Well, okay, Italy is one thing. What would happen if we applied that here? I don't think it would be a bad idea. Take the Dublin Athlone Motorway... If you hit the wall there at 120, you screwed, so may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
That said, there should be an advanced driving test which permits drivers to reach such speeds.
And also limited to certain models of cars...

Meh, just musings...

BlackWizard

You can do around 150kph on them roads already. But this is trying to bring it into law. Currently it depends who stops you and what you are driving.

ianobrien

I prefer driving on Italian Motorways to the Motorways here.

Over there it's simple. Drive in the right hand lane, overtake in the left and move back into the right hand lane straight away. If you stay in the left lane (fast lane, overtaking lane or what ever you call it) a fraction of a second too long, expect a Fiat Punto to be coming in your back window.....

Over Here, nobody indicates, they hog the overtaking lane, daddle at 100 to 110 kph in the overtaking lane, never look before changing lanes (I've indicated, to that gives me right of way 0.05 seconds after turning on the indicator) and get thick when you flash at them to move out of the overtaking lane (if I want to speed and loose my licence, what concern is it of you?)

Give me the Italian motorway any day. It's easy, just stay out of the way of wanna-be Senna's

RobAMerc

ianobrien wrote: »

I prefer driving on Italian Motorways to the Motorways here.

Over there it's simple. Drive in the right hand lane, overtake in the left and move back into the right hand lane straight away. If you stay in the left lane (fast lane, overtaking lane or what ever you call it) a fraction of a second too long, expect a Fiat Punto to be coming in your back window.....

Over Here, nobody indicates, they hog the overtaking lane, daddle at 100 to 110 kph in the overtaking lane, never look before changing lanes (I've indicated, to that gives me right of way 0.05 seconds after turning on the indicator) and get thick when you flash at them to move out of the overtaking lane (if I want to speed and loose my licence, what concern is it of you?)

Give me the Italian motorway any day. It's easy, just stay out of the way of wanna-be Senna's

+1 - give me a motorway full of people who know (for the most part) what they are at and wanna drive like lunatics over a bunch of "think they are safe, belligerent" tosspots with 0 proper training and no fu*king idea of what they are at !

Italians drive like lunes but they are skilled beyond the comprehension of your average Irish motorist.

meditraitor

RobAMerc wrote: »

Italians drive like lunes but they are skilled beyond the comprehension of your average Irish motorist.

I was thinking this myself but

The last year which can be used for comparisonf purposes was 2007, now lets see

Ireland road deaths = 336

Italy road deaths = 5215

Who gives a flying fuck about per capa! over 5000 people death per year on the roads compared to 336

Skilled my hole

daveharnett

meditraitor wrote: »

Who gives a flying fuck about per capa! over 5000 people death per year on the roads compared to 336

Indeed. Tuvalu averaged one road fatality per year between 2003 and 2006. Fuck about per capita, lets model our traffic system on them!

meditraitor

daveharnett wrote: »

Indeed. Tuvalu averaged one road fatality per year between 2003 and 2006. Fuck about per capita, lets model our traffic system on them!

How many people died in Tuvalu?

kodute

meditraitor wrote: »

I was thinking ...

Really shouldn't do that then. You might hurt yourself.
Per capita makes all the difference.

meditraitor

kodute wrote: »

Really shouldn't do that then. You might hurt yourself.
Per capita makes all the difference.

Tell that to the people that died on italian roads! 4879 more than ireland per year!

Saying italian drivers are more skilled than irish is rediculous and holding italy up as a prime example is another plain stupid reaction.

Have any of you even driven in italy?

GreeBo

RobAMerc wrote: »

+1 - give me a motorway full of people who know (for the most part) what they are at and wanna drive like lunatics over a bunch of "think they are safe, belligerent" tosspots with 0 proper training and no fu*king idea of what they are at !

Italians drive like lunes but they are skilled beyond the comprehension of your average Irish motorist.

Interestingly enough they rarely drive in the right-most lane, leaving that for the HGV's...
Does that make them all MLM's?

kodute

meditraitor wrote: »

Tell that to the people that died on italian roads! 4879 more than ireland per year!

Saying italian driver are more skilled than irish is rediculaous and holding italy up as a prime example is another plain stupid reaction.

Have any of you even driven in italy?

But how many more per capita died in italy? Again per capita makes all the difference...

In order to say the average Italian driver is more skilled than the average Irish driver one would have to be able to prove the driver education system is better there. I'm sure some other posters have experience with that but I do not.

Cionád

meditraitor wrote: »

Tell that to the people that died on italian roads! 4879 more than ireland per year!

He's explaining statistics to you. 15 people died on Malta's roads in 2008.

Ireland had 321 more deaths than Malta. But its not a like-for-like comparison, that is why per capita is needed.

daveharnett

meditraitor wrote: »

How many people died in Tuvalu?

One each year. Yet if ireland was as 'safe' as tuvalu, with it's one death per anum, no drink-driving laws, and one death per 63 cars, nearly 30,000 people would die every year in ireland.



per capita matters.

Gianka

meditraitor wrote: »

Have any of you even driven in italy?

Yes, being Italian I drove a lot in Italy, and a bit in Ireland, UK, Belgium, France, Switzerland.

The increase to 150 km/h makes a lot of sense considering that change in legislation will be applied basically in the North of Italy motorways, where it is mostly a flat and straight drive.

Additionally I think that the major causes of incidents are drink/drugs related, poor quality of the road/ poor conditions of the car / insufficient attention of driver

Finally why are many of you against this little increase I regularly drive in Germany where in many parts of the Autobahns there is 'a no limit sign' and I dont feel unsafe quiet the opposite, Germans on the road are extremely careful.

Anan1

meditraitor wrote: »

Who gives a flying fuck about per capa! over 5000 people death per year on the roads compared to 336

Skilled my hole

No more trolling, thanks.

kodute

After reading this article link

It seems on the face of it that italians have a similar process of driver licensing as us.

/emails Noel Dempsey...

Sandwich

Gianka wrote: »

Yes, being Italian I drove a lot in Italy, and a bit in Ireland, UK, Belgium, France, Switzerland.

The increase to 150 km/h makes a lot of sense considering that change in legislation will be applied basically in the North of Italy motorways, where it is mostly a flat and straight drive..

Wasnt it 140kph in the past anyway. When did you change to 130 and why?

unkel

IIMII wrote: »

They already have 5,000 killed on the roads there annually, and I can't see it dropping if the bring this in. Particularly as many drive like rally drivers

Unlike ianobrien and others, you've obviously never been on Italian roads for any length of time. Neither have you looked at the breakdown of those 5,000 killed.

Motorways 15*
National roads 485
Regional roads 4,500**

*including 11 Irish tourists
**including 4,400 mopeds and motorbikes

.Longshanks.

meditraitor wrote: »

I was thinking this myself but

The last year which can be used for comparisonf purposes was 2007, now lets see

Ireland road deaths = 336

Italy road deaths = 5215

Who gives a flying fuck about per capa! over 5000 people death per year on the roads compared to 336

Skilled my hole

Thats quite possibly the stupidest thing ive read on this site. Of course the per capital ratio comes into it

Marlow

meditraitor wrote: »

Italy road deaths = 5215

They died chasing a dream, what more could you wish for

Honestly, Germany has no speed limits on a lot of the motorways and the lowest amount of road accidents and kills in Europe compared to how many people that live there.

The discussion is pointless anyhow, because you can't compare apple and pears. 130-160 on the irish motorways would be nice though, however Garda need to have a way to enforce proper behaviour for lets say 3-5 years first (ie. fines for people hogging the overtaking lane, minimum speed of 60 km/h on motorways, ensure that L-drivers don't get on the motorway, etc. etc. etc.). Otherwise I can't see something like that being possible at all.

/M

Viejo Zorro

betafrog wrote: »

If it was applied here there would be utter ****ing chaos. People can barely drive at the current speed limit let alone at 150km/h. And the old biddies would still drive around at 80 in the overtaking lanes so it would just end in tears.

Oh dear oh dear... so so true... why can't people drive correctly on our motorways? Seriously? I've been stuck in a congested overtaking lane at 55 mph, while there was a semi uncongested inner lane doing 50 mph. I nearly cried... And what is it with people driving down motor ways on full beam? Are they trying to kill people coming up the other side.

I enjoy travelling in the wee hours of the morning, as there is less of this idiocy to contend with...

Gianka

Sandwich wrote: »

Wasnt it 140kph in the past anyway. When did you change to 130 and why?

Nope

Since I got my driving licence 17 years ago it has been 130 km/h. Anyway the motorway licencee is already allowed by the current legislation to increase the speed up to 150 km/h, but no motorway company has taken this step so far

Blackpitts

Gianka wrote: »

Nope

Since I got my driving licence 17 years ago it has been 130 km/h. Anyway the motorway licencee is already allowed by the current legislation to increase the speed up to 150 km/h, but no motorway company has taken this step so far

it was 140 km/h until the 1988 when minister Ferri reduced it to 110 km/h...but it lasted only 6 months because the government was overruled :rolleyes: and the new majority moved to to 130 km/h

having said that, 150 km/h make sense on the italian motorways becasue they are wider and safer than the irish ones (the % of drain asphalt there is higher that here, the space for pulling your car in case of emergency is good, the lighting is covering the most of their lenght etc..)

Gianka

Blackpitts wrote: »

it was 140 km/h until the 1988

Sorry I was not yet at the high school at that stage, still a little kid:p

j@utis

I've always wondered why car manufacturers put so much effort into making their cars more powerful and faster while speed limits never go up and there's simply no reason to make car be able to reach speeds well over 120km/h (this excludes few countries like Germany and likes, but not many).
It's like a top gaming PC being used to process word documents. That's how I feel in my car with never legally be able to put that foot down to the floor fully for top speed purpose

BlackWizard

The power is nice for accelerating. Not really needed for speed although a powerful refined engine can be more comfortable on the motorway than a 1ltr Micra.

ciaran67

IIMII wrote: »

And a zero alcohol limit for the newly licensed..

I seem to remember reading they didnt have any laws regarding drink driving until 1990.

JHMEG

Couple of things strike me about this.

Italy has a basket case economy, and together it, Portugal, Spain and Greece are knows as the PIGS. (Recently this was extended to be PIIGS - guess who the second I is for)

Italy has signed up for Kyoto, and is the worst performing of all 36 countries that signed up, looking like it will need to buy almost a billion dollars worth of carbon credits to meet what it signed up for.

Increasing speed limits has been shown to increase fuel consumption.

Is there a general election looming in Italy? Is this a populist move, because economically it makes no sense for Italy to do this right now.

Blackpitts

JHMEG wrote: »

Couple of things strike me about this.

Italy has a basket case economy, and together it, Portugal, Spain and Greece are knows as the PIGS. (Recently this was extended to be PIIGS - guess who the second I is for)

Italy has signed up for Kyoto, and is the worst performing of all 36 countries that signed up, looking like it will need to buy almost a billion dollars worth of carbon credits to meet what it signed up for.

Increasing speed limits has been shown to increase fuel consumption.

Is there a general election looming in Italy? Is this a populist move, because economically it makes no sense for Italy to do this right now.

on one hand I'd say that it makes sense to increase the limit on the motorways for the reasons I've mentioned above, on the other hand it is another populist move, this is why Berlusconi is still so popular despite all the sh*t he has being doing for the last 15 years.
bear in mind that Italy is surrounded by the sea and the railways are pretty good, but still the most used mean of transport is car and all the tranportations are done by truck, although it would be cheaper (and environmentally safer) to give incentives to develop alternative means like ships and trains.

Pdfile

unkel wrote: »

The Italian transport minister, Altero Matteoli, has proposed to increase the speed limit on 3 lane motorways from 130km/h to 150km/h. Only for big safe cars with big engines though

article

most alfa's will hit 140 then fall apart :pac: