Italy
In 2002 Italy issued a National Plan for Road Safety, dealing with all aspects of road safety (enforcement, improving infrastructures, awareness campaigns, etc.). Within this plan the development of the ITS systems is considered as one of the most effective measures to increase road safety. No decision as been taken yet on the possibility of introducing incentives for eSafety systems.
Several Autonomous Vehicle Systems such as ESC, blind spot monitoring, adaptive head lights, obstacle and collision warning and lane departure warning are already fitted in some cars and trucks. Benefits assessment tools are available (e.g.: ESP on training centres).
The need of public awareness has been recognized as priority issue and Automobile Club Italia joined the eSafety!Aware Platform. Even In 2007 Italy will host the first Campaign organized by the eSafety!Aware Platform dedicated to the ESP.
Italy has been an active country for activities concerning eCall:
o eCall MoU was signed on October 2005 by Technological Innovation Ministry, even if there are still open issues for 112 (EU infringement procedure concerning the non-availability of mobile phone caller location information to emergency authorities), e112, and regional PSAPs;
o Several Italian operators are involved in eCall related projects (E-Merge, GST-Rescue) and Milan was the Italian Test Site for the E-Merge project;
o an exploratory study carried out by TTS Italia in 2002 set up guidelines for the Field Operational Test on Regional Scale (pan-European solution) following the eCall DG Recommendations and involving the PSAPs.
RTTI services cover 80% of territory. The main broadcasters are:
o CCISS, the national traffic information centre, hosted by public broadcaster RAI, and covering major routes in the North of the country;
o the commercial radio station RTL 102.5.
DAB services cover 65% of Population. The main broadcasters are:
o Public broadcaster RAI (motorway radio station IsoRadio);
o several commercial radio stations.
Dynamic Traffic Management Applications are in place on the territory. On the Mestre Beltway, since 2003 there is Ramp metering and T3 System (Automatic Incident Detection, emergency lane used as rush hour traffic lane, dynamic speed limits per lane, Advanced Emergency Management, RTTI for the travellers), with 23 VMS (each 800-900 meters) and 107 special cameras equipped with processing units. The beltway was observed during 11 months before and after the implementation of the system for the assessment of Safety Benefits of T3 System and the results were the following ones:
o Accidents due to congestion analyzed (rear-end collisions):
• Number of rear-end collisions: - 70%;
• Rear-end collisions rate going down from 68% to 32%.
o Overall number of accidents: - 53%.
o Speed difference among vehicles: - 44%.
The Safety TUTOR System developed by Autostrade per l’Italia to implement speed enforcement along highway stretches, allows speed control in two modalities: instant speed and average speed. Two road side check-points equipped for data detection (speed, vehicle category; plate number) send data to a central server for data collection, certification and processing, where violation reports are validated. A satellite link (GPS) assures the synchronization of the checkpoints.
A Black Box Field Trial was launched in Italy. 17.000 vehicles were equipped with positioning and speed recording devices. A 3 years test took place in 5 main Italian cities (Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples, Palermo). Insurance companies were involved in the public-private partnership, and they are already offering discounts for vehicles equipped with black box.
Two websites are available at national level for dissemination activities:
• www.ttsitalia.it (111.000 contacts/month)
• www.aci.it (300.000 contacts/month)
Road Safety Vision, Plans, and Targets
In Italy, the development of a national road safety programme was cast in legislation. The development cycle takes place in two stages:
- Phase 1: Publication of general guidelines for setting up a programme (Indirizzi Generali e Linee Guida di Attuazioni) completed in February 2000 under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works (Ministerio dei Lavori Pubblici) and Inspectorate General for Traffic and Road Safety (Ispettorato Generale per la Circolazione e la Sicurezza Stradale). The guidelines were elaborated by an interministerial working party. The motto of this report is Article 3 of the Declaration of Universal Rights of Man: "Every individual's right to life, to liberty, and personal security".
- Phase 2: Further elaboration of annual packages of road safety measures. The target set for 2010 is a reduction of road crash fatalities and serious injuries by 40% (base year unknown).
Road Safety Priorities
The guidelines identified the following priority areas:
- Road safety measures for high accident rate road stretches
- Road safety in urban areas
- Vulnerable (non-motorised) road user protection
- Accidents decrease for commuter and professional traffic
Internalisation of external costs and road user safety information (e.g. risk exposure and vehicle safety), are explicitly mentioned as constraints for the implementation of the road safety programme.
In a more detailed fashion, the following priorities have been identified.
- Creation of a road safety culture
- Prevention, enforcement and sanctions
- Health issues
- Vehicle safety
- Improvements of vehicle passive safety (airbags, ABS, seat belt interlock systems)
- Development of a checklist for vehicle inspection, including dangerous goods transport
- Traffic and transport organisation and infrastructure
- Public information and campaigns
- Improved road traffic information
- Campaigns to inform and raise awareness to the general public on road safety issues
- Awareness activities for target road user groups (e.g. professional drivers and commuters)
Road Safety Management Organisation
The overall responsibility for road safety in Italy is in the hands of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. A specific Road Safety Committee (Comitato per la Sicurezza Stradale) manages the administration of developing, implementing and monitoring progress of the overall road safety programme and the annual road safety plans (Programmi Annuali di Attuazione). The committee has a technical secretariat (Segreteria Tecnica) and a monitoring organisation (Osservatorio sulla Sicurezza Stradale).
As a basis for the elaboration and implementation of the annual road safety plans, the effects of the previous year's measures are evaluated. Basic road traffic and road safety indicators are used for monitoring and evaluation purposes, such are accidents, fatalities and other casualties, information about "black spots", and traffic growth. The private organisation Autostrade is responsible for motorway network operations, and it has a dedicated, detailed evaluation process for their network.
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