I travelled a bit through Italy recently, by bicycle. Cycling here seems either
- super sporty road cyclist
- poor people on what’s left of what used to be a bicycle
Stumble upon Lodi, Lombardy: cyclists everywhere, like dutch style: adults carelessly cycling with 2 kids and lots of luggage on a single normal city bike and without helmets. What’s so different about Lodi (or the region) that it’s so common here, but not in other Italian small or medium cities? Any Italians with answers? Thanks
Not Italian, but am there frequently and have lots of friends there:
Naturally, it depends on where you are. Some places are frequented by tourists with mobile homes, and those have a higher amount of “casual riders”.
But generally speaking, Italy is… let’s say not really bike friendly…
For example: At Lake Como, the SS 36 runs along its Eastern Coast. SS stands for “Strada Statale” which is the Italian name for highway, a road where only cars are allowed.
But! At some points the SS36 is the only road since Lake Como is sitting next to mountains, and they only dug a tunnel for the highway. This in turn leads to these parts being demoted from an SS to a regular road, meaning other modes of transport are allowed.
Which of course means you’ll find people on road bikes, without any lights, riding in an old and badly illuminated tunnel with cars zooming past them at ~130 km/h 🤡
Had the opposite experience unfortunately. Tunnels on the ligurian coast are single direction, that switches with a timetable. Just 50 km/h or so, but bikes not allowed. Oh, sure, I’ll just pedal my bike over this 9km detour over a 350 meter high mountain pass instead 🤡
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Italian here, from a small/medium city nearby Milan. Experience might vary, but generally speaking, Italy is not a very bike friendly country. In the cities you might have separated bike lanes, bike lanes which are part of the street and devided from it by, well, a strip of paint, or no bike lane at all. Outside of the cities, yeah, those are for hard core cyclists and, unless you are in the countryside, not safe at all. The point is, safety on a bike is not guaranteed and you should be aware that our streets are built for cars first. I live in the Netherlands and here the infrastructures are built FOR bikes rather than being an afterthought. Be safe, wear an helmet and hope no one abruptly opens a car door while parked next to a bike lane.
Little OT: mopeds and electric bikes are turning bike lanes in the Netherlands a nightmare too. I am of the idea that electric bikes (the non-assisted types) and mopeds should belong to streets, should have an insurance, a plate an require a motorcycle rated helmet. Sorry, delivery guys. You are danger to other cyclists.
Yes, helmet + fluorescent stuff. Try to take smaller roads, but not always possible. The difference was just striking between for example Alessandria (pretty much 0 cycling) and Lodi (lots) while infrastructure seems almost equally bad.
I am from Belgium, Speed pedelecs (45 km/h!!) are ruining our bike paths too… :( they shouldn’t be allowed on the cycling paths, the speed difference with a regular non electric cyclist (15 km/h?) and especially kids and old people on regular bikes is just too big, and the speed pedelecers (car brains on a fast bike) bring a very toxic behaviour to the cycle paths
I’ve biked around near Lake Garda and cyclists are either
- sporty people
- Dutch tourists.
If really depends on the city you’re in. Some cities do have a bike culture, especially those where there are big Universities (in my experience). It also depends on the area you are in. In Turin for example there are a lot of young people cycling to the University Campus
Interesting. We went to rural Tuscany recently and it was only the first group.
I get the feeling that Italy is very heterogenous culturally, despite appearances. It did only become a single country relatively recently in the history of Western Europe.
We were unified in 1861, which is before other Countries in WE, but the problem is more related to the fact that our economic boom in the 50’s brought a car colture that still exists right now: for the first time ever people could afford to move easily, and the infrastructure was built upon that car-centric idea. Tracking back is hard and colture is hard to change.
you’re comparing Italy with which country? where do you live?
Belgium. It was mainly about the very large difference within Italy. I don’t see fundamental differences in infrastructure (low quality almost everywhere in Italy I’ve been, mostly because non-existant), so I was wondering why for example lodi does have so many normal cyclists that do not seem to be part of those two demographics.
thanks for the reply.
as a cyclist, you’re lucky to live in Belgium
I saw lots of folding bikes in Florence and Bologna
Afaik Luca is supposed to be very bike friendly and less touristy, but the biking might be more centered around mountain bikes
