Warning sign for rear bike racks when traveling to Italy

Italy is also a popular holiday destination during the holiday season, especially Lake Garda and Lake Como are popular travel destinations. Both are also popular destinations for beautiful bike tours including Italian dolce vita. However, there are special rules in Italy for transporting bicycles on the rear bicycle rack.

Keep this in mind when transporting items with overhang

In Italy there is a basic rule for transport: goods being transported that protrude beyond the rear, trailer or rear bicycle rack must be provided with a warning sign. To do this, you should use red and white striped warning signs; you need at least one. However, if the goods to be transported take up the entire width of the vehicle, you will need two warning signs, which are attached to the left and right at the end of the goods to be transported.

Why warning signs are important for rear bike racks

In Italy, bicycles are classified as hard to detect cargo when transported on the rear bike rack. This makes it mandatory to mark this difficult-to-recognize load during the journey, especially if the load is wider than the vehicle, i.e. if your bikes on the rear bike carrier protrude beyond the width of the car. However, what is important is not the width of the vehicle from mirror to mirror, but rather the width of the vehicle measured at the tail lights.

Mark the rear bicycle carrier with a warning sign

Regardless of whether you transport your bikes on the rear bike rack in summer or your skis and snowboarders on the towbar for winter sports in the north of Italy, warning signs are mandatory in Italy. This regulation is independent of whether the rear bicycle carrier is illuminated and has a license plate. Previously, rear-mounted bicycle carriers with a so-called repeat license plate (the vehicle’s license plate is repeated on the rear bike carrier) were excluded from the warning sign regulation, but this is now also mandatory for such transports.

Choose the right warning sign

The warning signs you need for such cargo in Italy should be red and white striped and made of metal. The dimensions should be 50×50 cm. If you do not use a warning sign, violations of the labeling requirement are usually punished with fines; more rarely, only a warning is issued.

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