Every year we spend 38 hours in a queue.

Now 131 billion is available to modernize our infrastructure

Today, as the experts had predicted, is a "black stamp" day on the Italian roads. But even in the rest of the year, things are not going so well, especially during peak hours on weekdays.

According to data from the European Commission, in fact, Italian motorists remain queued in traffic for almost 38 hours a year, practically losing a week of work stuck in the queue; in the Europe of 27, only Malta and Belgium have a more critical situation than ours. To say it is the CGIA Studies Office.

Commuters, who use the car to move from home to the office / factory and vice versa, and those who have to drive a means of transport for work are certainly paying a very high bill. This is the case of truck drivers, owners, taxi drivers, car rental agents, commercial agents and many artisans who, in order to carry out the required interventions, have to move with their van to reach the customers' offices / homes.

Compared to the main European countries, the gap in our country is important: if in the Netherlands you remain congested for 32 hours a year, in France and Germany it drops to around 30 and in Spain to just over 26. The EU average is around 30,4 hours.

The long queues that, unfortunately, negatively affect the lives of many people are attributable, in particular, to a couple of causes. The first is due to the insufficiency of the number of public transport in our urban areas (buses, trams, metro, trains, etc.) which forces many commuters to use private transport. In fact, Istat reports that in Italy only 12,2 percent of employed people go to work by public transport, while 69,2 percent do so by driving a car. The second is attributable to the serious infrastructural deficit that characterizes our country.

The results that emerge from the comparisons between Italy and the main European countries are pitiless and invite us to intervene in a very short time. In 2017, for example, Italy had 27,8 km of railway network per 100 inhabitants, below the EU average (42,5 km) while, for the electrified double track network alone, the value of 12,6 , 100 km per 14,7 thousand inhabitants was slightly below the European average (2017 km). Also in 1,8, Italy had a low motorway intensity in relation to the number of cars in circulation (10 km per 2,8 thousand cars), a figure much lower than the values ​​recorded in Spain, France and Germany (between 6,8 and 10 Km for 2016 thousand cars in XNUMX).

“According to the data released by the Ministry of Transport - declares the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - the competitiveness deficit of our logistic-infrastructural system costs citizens and businesses in our country 40 billion euros a year. Also for this reason it is necessary that the Government, following the severe economic recession underway, launch as soon as possible the infrastructure and transport plan that will allow the country to modernize, make it more competitive and, above all, to give a strong positive shock. to internal demand ".

“Although the results that emerge from the comparison with other European nations are not satisfactory - adds the secretary Renato Mason - even Italy can still count, in the logistics field, on many points of excellence, especially in the port and airport sector. However, the national average result is insufficient and we continue to be a country that needs to carry out both large and smaller works. If we are able to start these works in a reasonably short time, we will activate a very important lever to attack the economic recession and to create new jobs ”.

The CGIA Studies Office reports that the infrastructure annex to the National Reform Program presented on 6 July, provides for a priority investment plan for mobility of 196,7 billion euros of which 131,3 (equal to 66,7 percent of the total) already available.

The document, called "Italy fast", identifies 130 strategic works identified by the Ministry of Transport to which must be added the infrastructures necessary for the realization of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics, those for health, schools, barracks, prisons, etc. , which is the responsibility of other departments.

The priority road works to be commissioned by the end of the year are in any case 9, including the Grosseto-Fano, the Roma-Latina, the third megalotto of the SS106 Ionica and the Tarquinia-San Pietro in Palazzi. Other works included in the list are the A24-A25, the Ragusana, the Monte Romano east-Civitavecchia, the SS4 Salaria, the Ponte ad Albiano Magra, the e78 Grosseto-Fano, the Pedemontana Veneta and the Pedemontana Lombardia. The enhancement or extension of various other motorway sections or connecting sections of the A22 Brenner and A4 (Milan-Brescia and Venice-Trieste section) is also planned.

Even the "judgment" of the great international managers confirms the state of backwardness in the infrastructural field of our country. From the elaboration of the CGIA Studies Office on data from the World Economic Forum (WEF), among the 10 most important European countries examined, Italy always ranks at the bottom of the ranking for the quality / efficiency of the logistics / infrastructural system. In particular for

• road quality (see Tab. 3);
• efficiency of railway services (see Tab. 4);
• efficiency of port services (see Tab. 5);
• ultra-fast internet coverage. In this case the source is the European Commission (see Tab. 6).

Finally, the CGIA underlines that in addition to the construction of large tangible and intangible infrastructures, we also need to complete many "minor" interventions which are however indispensable for the safety of many citizens, many cities and small towns. Interventions that could give a surge in domestic demand. In fact, please note that:

• 88 percent of the approximately 8 Italian municipalities have at least one area classified as a high hydrogeological risk;
• about 40 per cent of public housing is located in areas with a high seismic risk;
• of the approximately 6.000 works surveyed (tunnels, bridges, viaducts, etc.), almost 2.000 require urgent interventions;
• the results of the Census of water for civil use show that in 2018 47,6 percent of drinking water did not reach the end users due to the dispersion present in the adduction and distribution networks.

Every year we spend 38 hours in a queue