Cyclists in the Italian City of Ferrara Credit: Copenhagenize

Britain's "Cycle Safe" Campaign has been replicated in Italy. It has been largely welcomed, but may need to be shaped to Italian circumstances. 

The Cycle Safe Campaign is still making waves in Britain with the Times newspaper reporting today that “MPs will hold a debate in Parliament about issues raised by the Times campaign.”

Further south in Europe the biggest Italian newspaper (“Gazzetta dello Sport” ) has also backed the campaign, stating that : “We have decided to join [the campaign] and relaunch it because it seems perfectly in line with the spirit and tradition of our newspaper and because, four months ago, our colleague, Pier Luigi Todisco, died in Milan while coming to the office by bicycle.”

The movement was in part spearheaded by cycling bloggers.

Paolo Pinzuti, an Italian blogger based in Turkey explains that: “On Wednesday 8^th of February at 12:00 o’clock 40 Italian bloggers published simultaneously a letter addressed to 25 main Italian newspapers asking them to promote and to adopt the 8 points Times manifesto.”

Reflecting on the campaign’s success Pinzuti says, “At the end of the first day of campaign we were quite satisfied with the results: the radios were calling us for interviews, the freezine Metro supported us with a banner on the first page of next day’s printed edition and a couple of members of our parliament were openly supporting our cause.”

“On the third day we were on the first page of Gazzetta dello Sport where they claimed their will to support the Times campaign.”

“Now we have 6000 people who joined our group on facebook, we are waiting for the members of the parliament to present our law's proposal which has been signed by over 60 members of the parliament belonging to almost all parties."

Is it suitable for the Italian context?

"Cycling policy doesn't exist at the national level and it’s a great way to make  cycling safety more visible," says a spokesperson from FIAB, Italy’s national bicycle association and an ECF member.

 FIAB does however believe that the Times campaign could be better adapted to Italian circumstances.

“We strongly support  this campaign, although with the situation being different in Italy, we would like to suggest another list of priorities and make other proposals resulting from our experience and our relations with ECF.”

The Italian situation is unique with some cities such as Ferrara already having a 27% modal share and  other cities such as Torino with only 1% of the populationcycling. The Times reported that "in 2010 263 cyclists died (6 per cent of the total deaths); and 2,556 died over the course of the last decade" which is more than double the number recorded in Britain."

It’s still too early to judge the extent of change it will bring about both in Britain and Italy, but early signs look hopeful. Time will tell if this is Europe’s "Stop de Kindermoord*" moment.