09Jun 25
Milan, stop the old bikes: the last “madness” green
After the cars, in the sights of the environmental crusade the bikes end. From October stop to the most “old” that seems madness by speaking of mobility. If there was no ideology in power (green) it would be easy to understand that “gold bridges” should be made to motorcycles and scooters because they cut queues and therefore pollution. Other than blocking them. And so from October in Milan 90 thousand motorcyclists will find themselves in front of a painful choice: leave their bike in the garage, or change it. The dream of the mayor Giuseppe Sala is Amsterdam where only electric motorcycles can circulate from 2030 and where everyone, but everyone, go by bike. But Amsterdam (culturally) is far away and here you have to settle for a faded copy, of a city that looks more and more like an environmental “matrioska” where a ZTL is inside another ZTL that is inside another Ztl still and where to move becomes more and more complicated and expensive because the “electric” for many remains a luxury. But there is no way out. Those who have an “old” bike will have to change it even if a motorcycle is not a car or a van and in general it is not “old” but “ancient”, almost always well kept, a piece of history and heart is always kept. The temptation would be to abandon it and convert to those electric “bicycle” that (it is clear) bike are not, which now all use (not only the riders for deliveries) and which in practice are motion but without the obligations of motorcycles. They have no license plate, no helmet is not needed, they do not pay insurance or stamp duty, they can go against the sidewalks, passing with red without risk of fines. For the irreducible of the green they are the top, the ideal means that makes Milan a model that seems more a jungle without rules. And where the sound of a twin -cylinder bites is only a malicious noise to be exorcised. And instead it is music. But what do they know …