Italy

Una delle sfide principali riguarda una cultura radicata che privilegia l'uso dell'automobile, scoraggiando l'adozione di mezzi pubblici e di trasporti alternativi. Questo comportamento si riflette in un mancato rispetto delle normative del codice della strada. Inoltre, c'è una scarsa attenzione verso la protezione degli utenti più vulnerabili, come pedoni e ciclisti. Questo atteggiamento compromette la vivibilità della città, che viene vissuta più come un luogo di transito che come uno spazio di incontro e socializzazione.

Road safety in Europe and worldwide is still tragically compromised by a high number of accidents and avoidable loss of human lives.

This is compounded by the worrying frequency of vehicle recalls for brake problems, with over 3 million units affected in just two years (ANSA data), a symptom of an intrinsic vulnerability in current systems.

The dependence on rare materials in traditional braking systems and new technologies not only creates economic instability but also generates significant geopolitical implications.

Furthermore, there remains a lack of a reliable and universal mechanical solution capable of improving braking and ensuring safety in the event of failure.

These challenges highlight the urgent need for innovative solutions like DUOBBRAK, capable of overcoming the limitations of current systems, despite the resistance, and mostly the indifference, encountered in promoting it within the industry, accelerators, and public and private institutions

Guardrails installed on road bridges are essential to the safety of vehicles and road users. May accidents happen every year, involving vehicles falling from bridges with often fatal consequences. These issues have caused, in Italy, in the last decade, more fatalities than bridge collapses, even if we count the Morandi bridge collapse victims.
Many infrastructure managers, especially at the local level, often lack accurate and up-to-date inventories of the safety barriers on their bridges. Moreover, the limited availability of financial resources, combined with the lack of personnel, makes it difficult for these entities to effectively assess the condition of such critical infrastructure. This proposed technology is represented by an integrated methodology to automate the assessment of road guardrails installed on bridges using open-source data and deep learning (DL) algorithms. It innovatively uses YOLO (You Only Look Once) object detection algorithm to classify the safety barriers to establish whether they match the current standards. To speed up the evaluation process, the software tool involves the extraction of bridge information from OpenStreetMap (OSM) to construct a database of existing bridges, which most road management bodies miss. This is integrated with Google Street View API, for the extraction of images of each bridge’s safety barriers to be analysed by YOLO. The synergic concatenation of these three steps (OSM, Google Street View, YOLO) into a unique software tool, provides road managers with a cost-effective and efficient tool to remotely survey the guardrails installed on their bridges, permitting to timely identify bridges needing barrier replacment.

The C•AUTO project addresses several persistent and emerging road safety challenges, particularly within urban environments. One of the main problems we focus on is excessive vehicle speed in sensitive areas such as school zones, hospitals, pedestrian crossings, and high-risk intersections. Despite existing signage and infrastructure, speeding remains a leading cause of accidents, particularly those involving vulnerable road users like children, the elderly, and cyclists.

Another key issue is the lack of adaptive and proactive tools to manage traffic behavior in real-time. Current solutions often react after incidents occur, rather than preventing them. C•AUTO proposes an innovative approach through the deployment of intelligent electric vehicles that function as mobile “City Safety Cars.” These vehicles travel at regulated speeds and use predictive data to position themselves strategically in urban areas with higher accident risk.

Furthermore, C•AUTO tackles the challenge of building a shared safety culture. It aims to influence driver behavior through presence, not punishment—creating an environment of passive regulation, education, and visual deterrence rather than relying solely on fines or enforcement.

By addressing both infrastructural gaps and behavioral aspects, C•AUTO contributes to achieving the Vision Zero goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.

The safety inspections conducted over time on incident-prone areas and the analyses carried out on accident cases through the SISS (Incident Information and Analysis System) present at the Road Safety Competence Center of Rome Capital have allowed for the identification of multiple concurrent elements that can lead to accidents, such as (indicative and non-exhaustive list):
Excessive speed relative to the road's horizontal and vertical characteristics and its context;
Driver distraction due to the use of electronic devices;
Failure to comply with road traffic rules and regulations;
Failure to comply with visibility triangle requirements or minimum safe stopping distances;
Failure to use pedestrian crossings;
Failure to obey traffic signals, either due to a lack of feedback from the signaling system (pedestrian call buttons) or excessively long signal times;
Pedestrian crossings in areas with limited visibility;
Overlap of conflicting functions in the same spaces;
Scooters or bicycles being ridden in pedestrian areas or on sidewalks;
Illegal parking at intersections, on pedestrian crossings, near waste containers, or double parking;

According to statistics, road accidents are the leading cause of death for young people, especially in the 18-24 age group. This is a good reason to raise awareness and to leverage the young population.
Many young people and young adults represent an interesting target for awareness campaigns. Not only can they help spreading awareness in society right now, but they are also highly exposed to road risks. Moreover, when properly addressed, younger people are open to learn and to change behaviour.
Motorways, Italian Police and City Authorities decided to reach out to young people by creating a project aimed at road safety culture.
The main goal is to widespread safety culture directly to students and young adults. It is also the opportunity to mobilize a huge number of national, regional and local stakeholders.
Impact and scale: The core of the initiative is made out of 40 events in 6 regions and 20 towns. Organizers expect to reach 10.000 to 20.000 people, ideally 15.000. It’s not just an easy tour of lectures in schools. Strategies for medium/long term engagement are put into practice. A concrete assessment of results is being made.

Si è creato un percorso protetto per i pedoni ed i ciclisti che collega il centro città alla periferia dove ci sono le scuole e gli impianti sportivi.
Il percorso è stato realizzato seguendo la normativa e permettendo agli utenti deboli della strada di potersi spostare in sicurezza.
Prima della creazione del percorso gli utenti deboli della strada dovevano percorrere il percorso utilizzando marciapiedi dissestati, attraversare incroci pericolosi. In questo modo, adesso, possono recarsi a scuole, ai centri sportivi o presso le loro residenze in maniera sicura.