Alberto Bettiol, Kristian Sbaragli and the Municipality of Castelfiorentino intervene in support of the bill introducing the “life-saving” one and a half meter distance, promoted by Marco Cavorso
Promote a culture of respect for cyclists, who remain victims of fatal accidents every other day. But also intervene with effective measures, introducing in the Highway Code the obligation of the “life-saving” side distance of one and a half meters (between car and bike), so as to ensure “safe overtaking.” This is the meaning of the road safety campaign, to which the Municipality of Castelfiorentino has adhered since 2020 and which this morning – at the opening of the new year – features two of its “favorites” such as professional cyclists Alberto Bettiol and Kristian Sbaragli, present in City Hall together with the Mayor, Alessio Falorni, Councilor Federico Fioravanti and Marco Cavorso, safety manager of the Association of Italian Professional Cyclists (ACCPI).
This is an authoritative contribution and support to a campaign that is as necessary as ever, considering that Italy is one of the countries with the highest fatality rate for cyclists (professional and non-professional), and it particularly affects solo riders. Marco Cavorso, who for many years has devoted himself body and soul to the issue of road safety (in memory of his son Tommaso, a rookie cyclist killed at the age of only 13 by a motorist who had made a reckless overtake), has relaunched the idea through his association of the meter and a half “lifesaver” to protect those who pedal on the roads. An issue that has been talked about for a long time, and which was recently taken up by parliamentarian Mauro Berruto, who presented a “simple and decisive” bill to amend the Highway Code-that is, the obligation for motorists to respect a meter and a half of lateral distance when overtaking a cyclist-which now exists in many countries in Europe and the World.
Therefore, the support for the bill of two champions such as Bettiol and Sbaragli could not be missed, as well as the endorsement of the Municipal Administration of Castelfiorentino, which has long been committed to sustainable mobility and road safety, investing in bike lanes (750 thousand euros in the last three years, for the new paths on Viale Roosevelt, Via Duca D’Aosta, Viale Di Vittorio, Via Manetti, and Via Bustichini) and on vertical signage, having had four signs installed in the main arteries of the capital with the indication that these are “roads with the presence of cyclists.” A sensibility that is fully shared by the associational fabric of Castelfiorentino, if one considers that numerous cycling enthusiasts, many of them representing groups and associations (La Rotonda, Grip, FIAB Valdelsa ciclabile, Vallerbike, Società Ciclistica Castelfiorentino, Museo Storico Cicli Simoncini, Club Amatori San Gimignano) organized a funding dinner to raise funds to be used for the purchase of four new vertical signage signs, to be placed in the area.
“I thank the Municipality of Castelfiorentino, also on behalf of Paola Giannotti and Maurizio Fondriest,” notes Marco Cavorso, “for continuing this collaboration on the installation of the cyclist-saving signs. This was an initiative that officially kicked off in 2018, joined by many municipalities, but in Castelfiorentino it was not limited to an episodic event, having continued over time as a living initiative, a real intention to change the way we behave on the road. It is just these days that the proposed law of one and a half meters as the minimum distance for overtaking cyclists has been proposed, and we hope that this will be concluded as soon as possible, also to bring us in line with all the other European and Western nations that have made it their own. In the meantime, it is important that this awareness springs from a grassroots movement, and therefore I renew my thanks to Castelfiorentino, which has placed this norm as a fundamental point for a better coexistence between different means of road traffic.”
“This is,” noted the mayor, Alessio Falorni, “an important issue, because every year there are too many fatal accidents that could be avoided with careful and more cautious driving behavior, especially towards the weaker and more vulnerable users on the roads, such as cyclists. It is necessary to recover a culture of respect for others, which can also make use of ad hoc regulatory interventions such as the one recently proposed by Hon. Berruto. This morning we invited Alberto Bettiol and Kristian Sbaragli to lend us a hand in this campaign, authoritatively supported by Marco Cavorso, which we have joined with conviction also because for several years now we have been committed with substantial investments to promote “soft” and sustainable mobility through an enhancement of the network of bicycle paths that are present in our territory, and which will soon be further expanded with the construction of the second lot of the Urban Park.”