Today, Sunday November 16, the Roman delegation of the Fratelli d’Italia, Giorgia Meloni’s party, organized a protest against the urban mobility policy of Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, of the Democratic Party, and in particular against the bicycle lanes that are “proliferating, eliminating parking spaces, reducing roads and creating more pollution” (this last statement is contrary to the experience of other cities).
Protesters were invited to participate in the protest in their own cars.
The protest will start at 16.30 from Piazza Nervi, in front of the Lottomatica headquarters, and will end at Viale XVII Olympic (approximately 14 kilometers, from south to north of Rome). The event was entitled “Car Parade” and carried the slogan “NO ZTL, NO USELESS CYCLE LANES, NO CITIES 30 WITHOUT CRITERION”. The slogans refer to recent decisions taken by Gualtieri to make mobility more sustainable: investments to widen and multiply bicycle lanes, the implementation of circulation limits in the city for the most polluting vehicles and, from 2026, the extension of the speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour to all restricted traffic zones (ZTL) in the historic center.
Gualtieri’s measures are consistent with the mobility policies adopted by various European cities, which seek to improve the quality of life of their citizens and at the same time reduce pollution emissions caused by transport. However, this has been implemented in big cities where many people lack confidence in the functioning of public transportation, so they continue to use cars.
According to a report published by ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics) in 2024, Rome is one of the Italian cities that experiences the most dissatisfaction with public transport (along with Perugia; Milan, Trieste and Bolzano are the three cities with the highest levels of satisfaction). In addition, in Rome, construction of a new metro line, line C, has been underway for years, a work that is still not finished (work started in 2007, eighteen years ago).
In announcing the protest, the Fratelli d’Italia gave it its all: not only public transport not working (the party talks about the “fall of mobility”), but also what it defines as the “freedom to choose” how people move, a freedom that, according to the party, the center-left wants to limit.
