Lazio Region Ordinance on Transport: a hole in the water?

(by John Blackeye) In times of conoronavirus, what emerges, reading in general many of the documents issued by Dicasteries, Regions and Municipalities regarding health protection and containment of the contagion from Covid-19, is that provisions are written, not so much to issue precise and concrete rules to protect citizens' health - giving detailed rules to be respected - but to clearly circumscribe the areas of their own responsibility and competence, putting themselves in a certain sense safe, leaving the rest of them to any underlying bodies .

Without wanting to raise criticisms of those who found themselves, as publicly in charge, to manage a planetary emergency that no one could ever have imagined, it should be noted, objectively, that often the Ordinances issued by the Regions, do not solve the problems for which they should be issued but seem to protect those who write them in the event of disputes and processes that could arise at the end of this ominous emergency parenthesis that we found ourselves unexpected between two normal periods.

Meanwhile, it must be noted that the Lazio Region Transport Ordinance, anxiously awaited by millions of people who travel by Bus, Pullman, Tram, Metro and Trains it was enacted on April 30th, a few hours before the start of the long weekend of May 4st, having the pretension to enter into force starting from May XNUMXth, after zero working days from its issue date.

The question that arises from reading the provision is this: during the long weekend of the bridge of May XNUMXst, who should have taken steps to implement the provisions of the Ordinance? Obviously the question remains unanswered. But we hope that the appropriate arrangements have found concrete implementation and are already available on Monday morning.

It is clear, therefore, that the intent does not seem to be perhaps only to regulate the movements of the masses of commuters in a context of sanitary hygiene in which millions of people get on the move to return to work, but rather to issue a measure that let me say, in the unfortunate event that everything went wrong, that the rules had been given.

Of course, there is no denying that something was written in the ordinance. There is talk of distancing, of dispensers containing disinfectant solutions, of installing passenger counters, of marking places not to be used on public transport, of prohibiting the activation of the air recycling function (in trains with air conditioning and "tightened" windows) , will it crack in the heat?), mandatory use of personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves, adoption of interventions, where necessary, for the quota of access to stations, etc.

All useful and all in line with the general containment criteria of the pandemic that we have heard about on several occasions, but how do these measures confront the hordes of hundreds of thousands of commuters who already from six in the morning until eight in the evening Will trains, bus platforms, bus stations and bus stops crowd?

Providing social distancing on public transport, such as trains on the Rome-Viterbo or Rome-Cassino line is practically impossible. Furthermore, the figure of the controller was formally excluded. So who should manage the revenue stream on trains at each train station?

The ordinance begins by ordering municipalities to do what they have to do, yes but what?

On Monday 4 May, hundreds of thousands of worried commuters, who may have used the disinfectant found at each station, will flock to all train stops, as they do every day. How can it be ensured that the trains or coaches that normally leave from the terminus to reach Rome overcrowded to the point of being improbable with people who do not even need to hold on to the handrails because they are perfectly stuck together, can guarantee the safety distance? But who wrote these rules started from objective and realistic data or wrote why something had to be written? Because the realistic data tell us, for years, of an infernal bedlam in which workers are forced to move to Lazio, arriving at work, already stressed and tired at eight in the morning.

Same thing for buses. The law says that if the driver detects that the "safe" seats have already been occupied inside the bus, from that moment on he will not have to make further stops, unless someone has booked it from the inside. Well, once you book the next stop what happens? Do you drop the data subject and block the users' ascent to the sidewalks? Or will we witness, as always, the filling of the buses between jostling, screaming and cursing?

In general, the Ordinance was issued assuming a complex synergy - which did not take place - between the Lazio Region, the Municipality of Rome and the municipalities of the Region in a context in which, following complex coordination actions, the working hours should be widened to allow flexible movements to the workplace . But we are talking about hypotheses that have never been applied since modern times. Cities are unprepared for this. Establishing by decree that the peak time is that which goes until 11,30 and no longer until nine in the morning, cannot solve the problem of hundreds of thousands of commuters who at six in the morning will already be crowded on the sidewalks of the Stations Railway waiting for trains or at bus and subway stops. In a country like ours where bureaucracy prevents any innovative introduction into the national legal system or requires assessments that last for years and which often follow the outcome of jurisdictional conflicts without end, it is not possible to issue an Ordinance on the last day working day of April and claiming that everything is in perfect working order on the first working day of May. It is clear that in a nutshell the message you want to pass on to the Italians is this: get by!

On Monday May XNUMXth, hundreds of thousands of commuter workers will find themselves at the starting point to start the technical tests of a return to normal. In this, in Lazio, they will be supported by a vague measure, without proven details, which eludes the real problems of overcrowding and which only requires the use of measures that will be difficult to adopt.

Perhaps it is appropriate to hope that on Monday May XNUMX, in conjunction with phase two of a country gagged by bureaucracy, little competence and a great fear of responsibility, the commuters of the Lazio Region will begin their first day of work after the pandemic, relying on own patron saint and common sense.

Lazio Region Ordinance on Transport: a hole in the water?