Between 2014 and 2023, more than 164,000 accidents involving cyclists occurred in Italy, causing about 3,000 people were killed and more than 150,000 were injured. The daily carnage figures come from the results of the first Atlas of Italian cycling accidents, a colossal and unprecedented monitoring carried out by the Milan Polytechnic, which cross-references data from Istat, Aci and the police to create a georeferenced and interactive cycling accident map. The averages report a reality where almost every day a cyclist is killed on the road and 41 others are injured, in a national map that shows a widespread problem, but with stark regional differences.
The works, collected in a portal that can be consulted online, show clear territorial differences: Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Tuscany concentrate most of the claimswith Lombardy leading (41,502 cases in the period). However, the priority of danger shifts to the South when it comes to death rates. Provinces such as Enna, in Sicily, or Vibo Valentia, in Calabria, have recorded the highest death rates in Italyreaching peaks of 17.65% and 12% respectively. The most exposed age group is those over 65 years of age, who represent the majority of victims.
The accident scenarios show contradictions: three out of four accidents occur in urban areas (73%), however almost half of the deaths occurred on out-of-town roadswhere speeds are higher and protection for cyclists is limited. 68% of collisions involve cars; The types that occur most frequently are side and front-side collisions at intersections and roundabouts, where right lane violations often occur. The data also shows when peaks occur: The weekdays with the highest accident rates are Thursday and Saturdaywhile the most critical moment is Saturday morning, with the peak occurring between 10 and 12).
This mapping also highlights technical limitations, such as Data completeness and geolocation have recently been improvedand the dataset experiences update delays. “The only thing that is certain is that we still know relatively little about cycling mobility in Italy – the researchers underline -. Precisely for this reason, we decided to publish our data, a real contribution to the constructive debate on the topic of cycling accidents, but also as an operational tool for the future.” Thanks to the monitoring carried out In fact, useful indications are emerging for practical intervention: reducing speeds, building physically separated cycle lanes, eliminating disruptions to inter-city cycle networks and implementing traffic calming measures. Experience in several cities is indicative: the introduction of a speed limit of 30 km/h in certain areas has shown a significant reduction in accidents and deaths, as well as an increase in bicycle use.
By broadening our view of the Italian mobility model, we can see how it seems to have stalled over the years heavily dependent on cars and only a few oriented towards other public and private transport. As proven by the 21st Report of the Institute for Higher Transport Training and Research (ISFORT) on the mobility of Italians, released at the end of last year, in Italy the car remains the main means of transport: in the first half of 2024 cars were used in 63.1% of trips. Despite recording a slight decline compared to the previous year, usage was still 2.2 percentage points higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. In contrast, the use of public transport increased, exceeding 8%, and light mobility, walking or cycling. By 2023, the overall sustainable mobility rate will reach 31.1%, reporting slight improvement but still far from pre-Covid levels. However, if we look at the last twenty years, the picture has not changed: in 2000, the share of green travel actually reached 34.1%.
