Fortunately, there is still time to amend the Highway Code

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has stated that Minister Matteo Salvini “has brought the lengthy process of drafting the new Highway Code to a close”. Indeed, on 13 October, the Council of Ministers gave preliminary approval to the draft legislative decree that completely rewrites the 1992 Highway Code.

However, the ‘drafting process’ does not mean that the work is complete. Nor is the new Highway Code in force, nor will it be for some time yet. Above all, it does not mean that it cannot be amended. The new text has yet to be reviewed by the Council of State and the Unified Conference – they have 30 days to give their opinion – after which it will be the turn of the parliamentary committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate; and if the Government does not intend to follow their recommendations, it will have to refer the text back to the Houses. In short, there is time and scope to address “the long drafting process” undertaken by Minister Matteo Salvini. There is therefore an opportunity to rectify and improve what transport experts have flagged as ‘problematic’ and even ‘dangerous’. The new regulations, in fact, adopt a stance that runs counter to the guidelines of the European Union and the leading international institutions on road safety. In this area, at least, it would be wise not to adopt an ‘Italian approach’ that overturns and discredits decades of research in the sector. Not least because some MIT technical experts have expressed to Il Foglio “great scepticism regarding the new measures, particularly those relating to the reduction of fines and the paternalistic ‘recommendations’ to pedestrians”.

One thing is clear to anyone involved in transport and road safety: excessive speed, together with distraction, is the leading cause of death on the roads. And what the vast majority of engineers and experts in the field of transport say is that vehicle speeds on urban and extra-urban roads near built-up areas need to be reduced in order to curb the carnage that claims 7.9 lives and leaves 652 people injured every day. At least, that is the situation projected for 2025 according to ACI-Istat data. The figures show a slight improvement, but this is not due to the reform of the Highway Code, but simply to the decrease in the number of cars and motor vehicles in Italy.

In 2018 (and subsequently in March 2023 and again in April 2025), the European Commission had urged Member States to work “as a matter of urgency” to improve road safety, explaining that the only way to do so was to reduce vehicle speeds. European experts had put forward two possible courses of action: either to increase penalties for speeding or to make changes to the road network, facilitating the transformation of towns into ‘Città 30’ or promoting the expansion of 30 km/h zones.

Minister Matteo Salvini has seen fit to disregard European guidelines. He has therefore hindered urban regeneration by imposing bureaucratic obstacles and has reduced fines as part of, as the MIT writes, “a general framework for reducing penalties, which must serve as a deterrent rather than being oppressive”, introducing a “progressive scale”. According to information obtained from sources within the ministry, the proposal is to increase fines by €10 for every km/h over the limit, although this would be reduced to €5 on urban roads with speed limits of 30 and 50 km/h – precisely where most pedestrians and cyclists are killed. The new text of the Highway Code is even said to include a recommendation that pedestrians exercise greater caution when crossing the road. Such caution is always welcome, but it sounds like a joke if it is regarded as somehow decisive in promoting road safety.

Bikeitalia has reproduced the text

In Italy, according to the Asaps-Sapidata Observatory, 334 pedestrians have died since the start of 2026. Of these, 151 were struck whilst crossing at zebra crossings. Is this down to distracted pedestrians or excessive speed?

There is a certain irony in all this: in a government that has introduced the anti-rave law and is debating the ‘anti-Maranza’ bill – measures applauded by Minister Salvini – Salvini himself is now championing a state that mitigates penalties with a ‘deterrent rather than punitive’ approach.