Brakes on Italians

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

Italian drivers have actually begun obeying traffic laws since the government introduced a national points system for driver’s licenses this summer. Each driver starts out with 20 points but loses several for each infraction, such as failing to wear a seat belt or running a red light. The new system has had an immediate effect on the notoriously lawless and dangerous Italian roads. Traffic accidents in July were down 21 percent compared with last July, and police wrote 4,000 more speeding tickets. “Italians still love to drive the wrong way up a one-way street,” traffic cop Iolanda Viscardi told The New York Times, “but otherwise, the change has been enormous.”