The snow so eagerly awaited by skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts has arrived, and it has made its first appearance on motorways and provincial roads. One of the topics that has sparked the most debate in this first part of the winter is the requirement to carry snow chains on board or to fit snow tyres, imposed through various ordinances by Regions and Provinces.
Since November 15 this requirement has been in force across almost the whole of Italy, and anyone who fails to comply can face fines and the loss of points from their driving licence. Although there have been no major snowfalls so far, the first penalties have already been handed out more or less all over Italy. The lack of precise information and the lack of advance notice about the ordinances coming into force triggered a collective protest by motorists, so much so that the public administrations themselves changed their minds and in more than a few cases made a U-turn, amending the restrictive ordinances.
On top of this came the infighting between those who argue that these measures are necessary and those who instead see these new obligations as nothing more than a way of raising cash.
Protests aside, word about the subject began spreading like wildfire online and total chaos ensued, with false news, requirements reported on roads not covered by the ordinances and figures thrown around at random without any official basis. Adding to the online chaos were the Regions and Provinces themselves which, following the substantial protests, moved the dates or cancelled the very same ordinances.
Following numerous requests, and after seeing the real confusion for ourselves, we started searching for information so that we could provide the right information on the subject. Help came from a page published on the State Police website, which deals with the subject by listing the various ordinances region by region. For each region a PDF has been attached that illustrates the ordinances in detail with the related obligations and restrictions, as well as useful information such as the names of the roads, the start and end dates, the authority that issued the ordinance and the various attached clauses.
PDFs with the ordinances of all regions:
>> Friuli Venezia Giulia ordinances
Browsing through these PDFs, we are not surprised that so much confusion has been created online: each region has issued different ordinances without using any standard template.
We would also like to quote part of the text on the Police website that refers to the relevant article of the Highway Code:
Article 6, paragraph 4, letter e) of the Highway Code, following the amendments made by Law no. 120 of July 29, 2010 (“Provisions on road safety”), introduced the possibility for the bodies that own or manage the road to require, by ordinance, vehicles to be fitted with or to carry on board snow chains (so-called anti-skid devices) or winter tyres suitable for driving on snow or ice.
And also:
in the event of non-compliance, to apply the prescribed fine (from 80 to 318 euros)
With this article we hope to bring a little order to this information chaos, and we hope to be able to provide the right information about this “new obligation” in a detailed and definitive way. For our part, we would like to thank the State Police, who with a dedicated page have given everyone the chance to get some clarity on this issue.
If you have any questions or anything else, you can leave a comment below.
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