Legal Traffic restrictions in the Dolomites

The management of the four northern Italian provinces that share the Dolomites feel that the mountain range (which is popular with cars, motorbikes and all kinds of tourists) is becoming disturbingly crowded. The extreme traffic involves huge emissions of pollutants, and of course noise, too. The size of the traffic is also shown by the fact that next to the breathtakingly beautiful Lake Braies (only 1.2 kilometers long and 3-400 meters wide), during the peak period of the day, up to 12 000 vehicles may turn around. The past tense is because the ticket system already cut this number to arond to 5 000.

This encourages the decision-makers of the affected provinces want to introduce a similar system on the mountain passes, too. Those who want to drive through them must buy a ticket. There is talk of introducing a quota, and also that four- and two-wheeled vehicles with excessive emissions and noise are not allowed on mountain crossings, even for a fee. After that, it would be logical to buy the tickets entitling you to pass in advance, to avoid falling on your face on the spot. Although barriers and other physical obstacles - at least for this reason - probably won't block anyone's way, it's not worth playing tricks, because the IT system for recording license plates is ready to be deployed, and obviously the authorities will do their best to catch the blitzers and those who pollute too much and/ or in order to filter out vehicles deemed to be loud.

There is not much practical information yet, just as the planned magnitude of the awards is not known. However, considering that the region receives a very substantial income from motorcycle tourists, that particular pencil will certainly not hold thin. In any case, local politics is determined, and now the ball is in the hands of the bureaucrats of the relevant Roman ministries. If they say yes, drivers and motorcyclists who like mountain passes can expect significant, pocket-friendly changes from 2024.

Before everyone starts packing and starts tomorrow for a Sella tour, let's quickly add that there was a similar idea to clean the Dolomites before. Back then, motorcyclists could go up the mountain after registration, at a specified time and in number, but the practical implementation of the system was so "Mediterranean" that the barriers disappeared from the passes after a few months.