ROVIGO – Not a cycle path but a lane. While the debate rages on the possible danger of the new horizontal signs designed on the initial stretch of Viale Porta Po freshly asphalted and on the ramp of the Bassanello bridge, also recently renovated, a clarification on the space reserved for cyclists along the aforementioned road comes from Palazzo Nodari.
It is in particular the public works sector, and not the local police, responsible for the signs, as logic would suggest, to give explanations on the new lanes for two-wheelers that appeared on the ground and were considered dangerous. Because the new horizontal signs identify a lane for bicycles only in the center between two lanes reserved for cars.
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In practice, immediately after the entrance to Viale Porta Po, leaving the Corso, the road, heading south, divides into three. On the right, the lane for cars intending to turn, once they reach the traffic lights on the bridge, towards the Western ring road, on the left the lane for cars intending to go straight towards Viale Porta Po and the industrial and commercial area to the south of the city . And in the middle, in fact, a lane reserved only for bikes who, in moments of heavy traffic, will find themselves traveling along that stretch of road between two parallel rows of cars, without any protection other than a white line drawn on the ground.
And precisely on this, the sector’s experts Public works explain that “cycle path” and “cycle lane” are not the same thing. On the contrary. A cycle lane, in the specific section in question, is not feasible: there are not the right distances and sizes to allow the coexistence in the same space of the roadway intended for the transit of vehicles with a well-demarcated cycle lane made safe through curbs, posts or other space separation devices.
What has been possible to create is a cycle lane which has been recently defined through national regulations and which it is explained that “can be occupied, for short stretches, by other vehicles if the dimensions of the roadway do not allow its exclusive use to bikes; in this case it is part of the vehicle lane and must be delimited by discontinuous white stripes”. Furthermore, it must be “marked by the velocipede symbol”. Nothing different, in short, from what was achieved on viale Porta Po where, in fact, as the Fiab of Rovigo has already clarified, cyclists already transit in the center of the road to continue straight along Viale Porta Po.
“Yesterday, exactly on that piece of road – writes Fiab – the bikes took exactly that path to go straight. Today it is made explicit with a little paint. And suddenly motorists realize that they are not alone on the road and cry foul.”
No scandal, in reality, but just some doubts linked to safety issues clarified by public works: the lane serves above all as a warning to motorists to keep in mind that on that stretch, in the center of the road, you could encounter bicycles intent on continuing straight, so it is best to use caution since, passing through those parts, you encounter many two-wheelers at all hours.
