OT- Speed limits in Italy
 

Sorry this is off topic, but I had to share it. I don't know if this is a hoax or not, but I found the following on Autoexpress.co.uk


Italy Raises Speed Limits

In a move which has outraged safety groups, Italy has raised speed limits in a radical bid to lower the annual 6,410 death toll on its highways.

Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi said it means a 93mph limit on motorways, and came about because research showed speed was only a factor in nine per cent of accidents. He added: "All psychologists and doctors say people who go faster drive better and are more careful." Richard Yarrow


Gotta love the Transport Minister's reasoning.

It's true.
The speed limit was raised to 150 kph on 3 lane autostrade. However, I think it was more to do with legitimising a situation than anything else as speed limits were generally ignored anyway. The real safety issue in Italy is, in my opinion, that the autostrade are crowded and should be 4 lanes in places, the speed differential between the two slow lanes where trucks and grannies travel and the fast lane is just too much.
The key number is 170 kph, above that penalties are much stiffer. The other sensible change they made was compulsory lights at all times on autostrade and dual carriageways.

I hope the idea of raising the speed limit will spread north.

Too true!
I found, driving the autostrade, was highly stressfull just for that reason. If you drive the "speed limit" (or just above) it becomes a constant game of trying not to rear-end some slow moving truck, -OR- trying not to get rear-ended (when passing) by some insainly fast moving BMW or Benz rocketing down the passing lane.

Italy is one place where I really wished I had my 911 (and purely for safety reasons). Driving that Fiat there, constantly bouncing off the rev-limiter, while negotiating that speed differential, was not relaxing.

I found the traffic so slow and the Autostrade so crowded I couldn't go fast even if I wanted to. Driving from Milano to Rome took over 12 hours and most of that was spent stopped in a traffic jam. Now Switzerland, that was a different story :)

Milan to Rome is about 560 klm.
So you averaged around 30 mph.
My husband, (does not observe autostrad a limits and is an aggressive but safe press-on driver) in good weather and typical traffic manages the run in about four and a half hours. It's usually limited by traffic in the cities and the part around Florence which is two lanes and with some overtaking lorries you don't always see because of the curves.