In July, Como’s mayor Alessandro Rapinese left the town hall after a meeting on traffic rules, and an electric bicycle knocked him down on the pavement outside. He avoided hospital treatment, suffering only bruising, and the collision set in motion a ban now covering thirty streets in the lakeside city’s walled centre.
Cyclists, whether riding a standard frame or an electric one, must dismount and push their machines through the restricted zone from September. Italian traffic law draws no legal line between the two.
Rapinese has said people act on their own experiences, admitting he knows “what it’s like to be hit by one of these beasts.” The admission alone invites suspicion of personal grievance dressed as policy. A closer look at Como’s tourist pressures and evolving European bicycle data implies the ordinance, however clumsily justified, answers a genuine and growing municipal problem.
A Bruise Turns into a Grievance
Residents and cycling groups reacted with anger once the council approved the measure covering thirty streets, accusing Rapinese of converting a private mishap into public law.
Civic associations have organised a mass ride through the restricted streets for mid-September, alongside an online petition demanding reversal.
Rapinese has pushed back against the vendetta narrative, insisting, “I am not looking for revenge.” He has also acknowledged the obvious link between his fall and the ordinance, calling the connection undeniable. Honesty about motive rarely settles a policy question. The coincidence of a mayoral injury and a citywide restriction says nothing conclusive about whether the restriction itself is sound.
Tourists Crowd Como’s Narrow Lanes
Whether the restriction serves a real purpose rests on conditions in Como itself, not on the mayor’s bruised pride alone. Lake Como’s walled centre draws crowds no medieval street plan anticipated, a pressure familiar across Italian and Mediterranean towns this year.
Protests against overtourism have spread across Venice, Barcelona, Rome and Milan, driven by residents demanding relief from housing costs and crowded pavements.
Como already barred rented electric scooters from its centre in 2022 and has added charges to vehicle access this year, treating bicycles as another category needing containment.
Delivery riders, who ride fastest and weave most unpredictably among pedestrians, feature prominently in Rapinese’s public complaints. Given the wider crowding across Italian cities, the bicycle ordinance fits a municipal campaign against congestion already under way.
Bicycle Data Muddy the Simple Case
Rapinese frequently cites safety as his justification, and the wider data offer mixed support. Continent-wide monitoring covering four hundred and fifty million journeys recorded injury risk for shared electric bicycles falling by 18.4% in 2025 compared with the previous year, the fifth consecutive annual decline.
Hospital studies elsewhere tell a harsher account, recording rising head trauma and higher admission rates among electric bicycle riders compared with riders on standard frames.
The two data sets can coexist without contradiction. Shared fleets have grown safer through better design and slower speed limits.
Privately owned electric bicycles, often modified past the European Union’s cap of 25 kilometres per hour, remain a distinct hazard. Rapinese’s ordinance draws no such distinction, treating a rental fleet and a souped-up private machine as identical threats to pedestrians.
One Rule Fits Every Rider Poorly
Design flaws compound the fairness problem regardless of motive. Italy’s traffic code makes no legal distinction between a slow pedal cycle and a battery-assisted machine capable of 25 kilometres per hour, so municipal rules built atop it inherit the same blindness. National politics offers no better model.
The deputy prime minister proposed number plates for cyclists last year, then abandoned the idea within days once it drew ridicule.
Como’s ban falls hardest on the couriers who deliver meals and parcels through the walled centre. Their earnings hinge on speed, and the replacement expenses, a cargo tricycle or a longer walking route, fall on them alone.
A city serious about pedestrian safety could have built a licensing tier for delivery fleets, lower speed limits at busy hours, or dedicated lanes on its widest streets. Rapinese chose the simplest tool available to him, a blanket prohibition, over the harder administrative work of calibration.
A Fairer Ban Remains Achievable
Personal injury cannot substitute for evidence, and Rapinese would improve his position by publishing the pedestrian data behind the restriction instead of citing his own experience whenever challenged. The mid-September protest ride will gauge how much public patience remains before an administration must adjust course.
Should the ordinance survive its first winter without exemptions for couriers or residents who need bicycles for daily errands, Como risks trading a personal grievance for an economic one.
The wiser outcome available to Rapinese combines permits for local cyclists, restricted hours for tourists, and firmer enforcement against speeding riders on the busiest lanes. Such a policy would retain the safety gain his fall uncovered without penalising everyone who pedals.
Whether Como’s council pursues calibration or leaves the blanket ban standing will settle how serious the safety rationale truly is, better than any bruise could.
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