The beginning and the end of August are the two times of year in which Italy’s motorway system becomes jam-packed, as an entire nation, more or less, goes on holiday. The worst weekends traffic-wise will probably be 1-2 and 8-9 August, while 29-30 August will probably see quite a lot of people returning home. If you're in there amongst the traffic, the important thing is to drive safely. Luckily, European statistics show that loss of life on the road is dropping in all EU countries, and the same is true for injury accidents in nearly all nations – except for Italy, where the number of accidents causing injury has risen from 190,000 in 1997 to 238,000 in 2006. By way of comparison, in the UK the statistics are almost exactly the opposite, dropping from 247,500 to 194,000 (source: ERSO European Road Safety Campaign).
Amidst all this, a “Code for Driver to Driver Signalling” published by an Italian association shows admirable intentions – the association’s objectives include encouraging respect and politeness, and promoting courses of road education – but in other ways it is frankly rather worrying. Their Code is designed to help “drivers understand each other straight away” as well as promoting greater consideration and mutual cooperation. The techniques used are signalling with one hand (they helpfully point out that the other must stay on the wheel…), flashing headlights or brake lights, or hooting the horn. So, you may ask, what has changed? Surely people have been waving, flashing and hooting ever since Karl Benz took to the road in 1885? Well, the difference is that in the proposed code, you use long and short flashes or gestures, something like the Morse code. For example, if you want to warn a motorist that he has forgotten to switch his lights on in a tunnel, you send him two short flashes and one long flash. Or, if his door isn’t properly closed, one short and one long. In the instructions, the association says “Don’t become distracted while attempting to communicate signals or checking to see if they have been understood.”
And this is exactly the point. The idea of a driver hurriedly consulting a chart – the association has published an illustrated leaflet with ten different signals – to find out the right sequence of long and short flashes fills me with terror, particularly in a country where there seem to be two cars for every member of the population, and three mobile phones for every car, and where no-one seems to have any hesitation at all about conducting long phone conversations with a normal hand-held mobile while driving. And giving the driver yet more things to do is actually going in the opposite direction to the latest developments in road safety. German engineers are working on a “smart” dashboard that reduces the amount of information shown to drivers in heavy traffic. Researchers have found that by eliminating certain elements of incoming data, drivers’ reaction time speeds up. These studies are becoming more important nowadays, as car technology increases, with new warning signals, navigation systems, steering-wheel hi-fi controls, and head-up displays (source: New Scientist).
Sometimes it would be pleasant to get away from cars for a while. I couldn’t help thinking along these lines during a wonderful concert organized by the Municipality on 19 July. It was held in the courtyard of Villa Reale in Via Palestro, and the evocative scene, with the Neoclassical architecture silhouetted against the fading light of a clear summer sky, was enhanced by a relative scarcity of mosquitoes, and occasional glimpses of the natural world, such as a flock of ducks flying low overhead on their way to the next pond. The air was filled by the delicate sounds of a strings orchestra, with period instruments tuned to A415, and the programme provided international visitors a rare opportunity to hear works seldom performed outside Italy, by composers such as Sammartini and Galuppi. But throughout, the musicians had to compete with the insistent rumble of traffic noise from nearby Corso Venezia, along with occasional hoots and sirens, and all this seemed a fitting metaphor for the fragility of art and beauty in the modern world. The concert was packed, with all seats taken, and a lot of people standing, or sitting on the cobblestones, and as usual the Milanese audience was exceptional for their rapt attention and enthusiastic applause at the end. There are some classical music concerts in August, but most are in churches, which provides a respite from traffic noise, heat, and mozzies.
Traffic is a problem ranging much wider than just interfering with concerts. A meeting, organized by the British Council and environmental association Italia Nostra, looked closely at the problem of traffic in cities. After a day’s discussion, they decided that the priorities are public transport, circulation charges on private traffic, and more space for pedestrians and cyclists. Well, I think that knocks the nail right on the head…
Lastly, while on the subject of Ford Galaxies, Orions, Scorpios, Vauxhall Astras and so forth, if you’ve got nothing to do after midnight on the night between the 11th and 12th August, or on the next couple of nights, you could find a piece of unobstructed, unilluminated sky and look north-north-east, after the moon has set: you may see some of the meteorites in the Perseids shower which traditionally arrives every year on the 10th August, but that this year will be… astronomically delayed. On the question of finding a location free from light pollution, there is an observation evening at Villa Toeplitz, Sant’Ambrogio, near Varese, on Wed 12th August from 20.30 on (see www.astrogeo.va.it). Milan's Planetario will be running events dedicated to shooting stars on Tues 11th August, at 18.30 (for children) and 21.30 (adults), all in Italian.
Henry Neuteboom