Driven mad by Italia

We left the sophistication of the Cote d’Azur behind us, the wealth, the glamour, and we entered Italia. You might think nothing would change. The landscape was the same, the same coastline, the same climate, maybe a different language.

Everything changes.

The roads are mayhem. Everything they say about the Italian driver is true, and then some. The French Riviera was a garden of tranquillity compared to here. The most noticeable difference, the traffic jams. Pretty much straight after the relic that was border control, and is now some makeshift aire full of motorhomes, cheap but hardly beautiful, GRIDLOCK.

It only took a few minutes to establish the culprit of this chaos; the Italian. Spatial awareness does not exist within the Italian psyche. It is as though they were some pedigree racehorse, blinkered to all that is going on around them!

This coupled with the fact they have absolutely no understanding of the size of their vehicle, a horrible combination. Now we can generalize here, but actually it is no generalization, for you would be absolutely correct to say that ALL Italian driving is bad; young and old, man and women, large car, small car, van, bus lorry- all driven badly.

However, they are incredible creative, especially at parking. They will park anywhere, the more ludicrous the better. A favoured spot on the corner of a junction, even better if they are double parked….on the corner of a junction.

Now I have experienced this before; Spain is also a pull up anywhere country, it is only for a couple of minutes, it won’t matter, as the tailbacks start to form. Interestingly, everyone does it, everyone complains about everyone else doing it. The convenience of me doing it though, does it really outweigh the inconvenience of everyone else doing it? There seems to be a disconnect between the action and the resulting chaos. This is especially true in Italy.

If you gave Italians a lot of credit you might say that they analyse the situation, looking at all possible scenarios before establishing that, yes, it is this particular spot which will cause the longest tailback through the town, result.

We have seen the most dangerous manoeuvres you could imagine; undertaking, overtaking while you are waiting at a traffic lights, obviously overtaking while on a blind corners and our favourite, still having the nerve to do a left turn in front of an ambulance on emergency call; they nearly needed that ambulance, they nearly became one of the statistics that made up the 3,753 people that died on Italian roads in 2012.

There seems to be no instinct of self preservation within the Italian driver, or perhaps it is just faith, faith that the other driver is better than them, and will be able to avoid the collision at the last moment.

There is something else missing in the Italian driver, common courtesy. But actually it is more than that, it is not being able to see the consequences of your actions; ‘I want to be in front’ but not, that may put me and others in danger by overtaking on a blind corner, on the other hand, by letting someone in at a junction will keep the traffic flowing, and you might let someone in because if you were in that situation you would like to be let in.
We have never seen this in Italy, we have seen utter shock, horror and downright confusion when we have let someone in, it just seems incomprehensible to them. It is true that the UK takes this too far, you can be sat at a mini-roundabout for hours each courteously letting the over go first!

Now it obviously goes without saying that Italians are the best drivers, and the statistics would back that up. Unfortunately they don’t, unless you see fatalities on the road as a good thing. At 6.2 fatalities per 100,000 they are nearly double the UK at 3.5. They are also behind Norway, Denmark and Sweden (all around 3) Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Iceland, Malta, Netherlands (All below 4) Germany, Finland, France and Austria.

In Europe, only when you count in the former Soviet block countries does it look like Italians can drive with any semblance of safety and to put it into a global context of 18 deaths per 100,000 population you might consider them perfect.

So what could be the cause of all this mayhem and fatality. From casual observation it would seem that it is compulsory to;

Ignore any road traffic signage, especially those related to speed, they are there to advise of the minimum.

Markings on the road, like an ancient relic, are a historical artefact, not to be taken literally.

It is compulsory to be permanently talking, texting or emailing on your mobile while you drive. It probably enables you to do all that research into where is the most inconvenient place to pull up.

Now you would have to also point a partial finger of blame at the jurisdiction. Why are Italian drivers not penalised for all the contraventions of the road, this is a broad assumption that they are contraventions. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring in a driving test, as other European countries have, to ensure that the Italian has the basic skill to manoeuvre a tonne of metal along the roads. But really what is needed is a general change of attitude amongst the population, an attitude that says this is not acceptable behaviour. Presently among Italians it is a joke, the way they drive; so too are the extra needless deaths and torn apart families.

 

But the Italian government has also been creative in trying to slow down Italian drivers. Their first policy also fits well with austerity, do not in any way repair any of you roads.

The potholes are frightening, gargantuan gorges and slot canyons.

Rather than repair, the alternative solution is to put up signage warning of impending bumpiness and limiting speeds.

Most roads seem to limit to 50 kmph.

They have another sign that simply means the road might be falling off the mountain, sometimes this also has a couple of traffic cones around it so that you don’t follow the road.

This bit of road looks like it is going that way!

So if you are cautious and mindful to bring a spare 5th gear, following our experiences, you might also want to bring spare suspension springs and a lot of patience.

But we should also talk about the incredible infrastructure, that may be decaying in parts and has seen better days, but it is still magnificent.

The bridges, viaducts and tunnels are superb.

It just goes to show that long term investment really pays off, this transportation infrastructure has been around for eighty years plus and is still paying dividends.

It just need a little upkeep.

And the Italians need a few driving and courtesy lessons!

And another thing; petrol stations, maybe some practical advice. Firstly, generally the prices are eye watering, up there with the UK, but also they vary dramatically, and within a short distance. You can have to adjacent stations, one selling at €1.39 the other at €1.65 , and even more bizarrely, there are still people filling up at the really expensive one, maybe the more costs one is better quality! The other thing is you pay extra for someone to do the filling for you; two pumps maybe self serve and two they serve you. Picking the wrong one is costly, you will pay an extra €0.20 cents a litre, that might be €15 for a tank full

Oh, and another thing, the final one I promise, spring is here. The blossom is out and it was 24 degrees yesterday.

Wonder what it is like in the UK. Drizzly march no doubt.

GDR

 

Source World Health Organisation Report from 2013.