The Presidents of the Region saw well in the last meeting of the State - Regions Conference when they relaunched sustainable mobility. Yesterday the Isfort (Higher Institute of Training and Research for Transport) data on 2016 mobility was released. A third of Italians choose public transport, a bicycle or walk. The rest are avid motorists. They grow by 8 points compared to 2001 and it's a good figure. A worrying picture, in some ways disconcerting. How many public resources have been used for green travel in our cities? They don't count. And yet in the programming of European funds 2014-2020 there are dozens of projects for cycle paths, non-polluting public transport, car and bike sharing. The fact is that Italians continue to prefer private cars.
The governors may have sensed it. At the meeting at the beginning of August, they sent a list of things to do to the Senate Environment and Public Works Commissions. Proposals presented by the councilor of the Calabria Region, Francesco Russo on behalf of all of them. Ideas and money of course. For example, funds for electric mobility to be included in the national transport fund. For the Italian bus fleet (among the oldest in Europe) the compulsory use of alternative, non-polluting fuels is requested. Then, proposals for railway safety, cycling, the renewal of the rolling stock of public transport and the monitoring of good practices by the Regions and local authorities.
When work resumes, the parliamentary commissions should start the discussion on the merits of the text received. Now, the Regions may not always have been virtuous in this strategic sector of our daily life, but it is a pleasure that they do not neglect the economic value of their choices. In fact, in addition to the environmental value, the Senate, which must meet them, recalls the economic sustainability of the actions to be taken. In the sense that it is necessary to take into account the possibilities offered by the budgets of central and local public administrations in order to comply with the commitments. For them, criticism must go to the EU, where ideas often don't translate into concrete facts. A principle developed in the context of environmental policies, for example, finds little application due to resistance from the sector of economic development policies. If we find the synthesis between the two needs, we can also bring it to Brussels.
