Resources to boost cycle lanes will grow from 33 to 94 million over three years. An amendment tabled to the Stability Bill in the Chamber has substantially rewritten the allocation that was inserted during the Senate passage. The funds available for new roads dedicated to cyclists are thus nearly tripled.

Where the new cycle lane resources will be used

These new resources will be used primarily for the development of tourist cycling routes. The amendment worked on by the government and rapporteurs specifies that the funds must go towards cycle lanes intended above all for the tourist cycling routes Verona–Florence (Ciclovia del Sole), Venice–Turin (Ciclovia VenTo) and the Grande raccordo anulare delle bici (the Grab, in Rome).

And on Saturday 12 December, from Florence, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Graziano Delrio, attending the Leopolda, announced the news: "In the Stability Law we will include a major national plan for the development of cycle lane infrastructure. There will be east-west connections, from Venice to Turin, and north-south ones." He added, as reported by Ansa, a personal remark: "I cycle every day in Rome, risking my life, and I always arrive before my escort, which travels by car."

This good news for all cycling enthusiasts comes on top of the – excellent – near-definitive shelving of the proposal to register bicycles and make them pay road tax. Here too, the rewriting of an amendment to the 2016 Stability Bill should limit the deeply unpopular obligation to vehicles for commercial use only (such as rickshaws or ice-cream carts).