In 2023, families and private citizens paid 1 billion and 535 million euros in traffic fines to Municipalities, with an increase of 6.4% on the previous year and 23.7% on 2019. Even net of inflation, the The increase compared to the pre-Covid year is 6.9%.
The data are reported today by the Sole 24 Ore which speaks of a 'boom in fines' and re-elaborates the data from the telematic system of the Ministry of Economy (the Siope) which records all cash movements in public administrations.
Sanctions are a reality especially in the Centre-North (84.3% of the total), and are growing especially in medium-small centres, which recorded increases of over 50% compared to 2019. Florence stands out among the cities.
The explanations - explains the newspaper - are more than one: more movements, more checks, more infringements and faster collection tools and a robust dose of inflation.
The distribution of receipts helps to detail some of them.
First of all, the rush was significantly more intense in small and medium-sized municipalities, while in larger cities the figures appear more stable.
The smallest municipalities, those that do not have 10 thousand inhabitants, collected 238.6 million euros last year, with surges that in four years travel around +50% to reach +59.7% in the range between 2 and 5 thousand inhabitants.
When the size of the Municipality grows - explains Il Sole 24 Ore - the numbers become less lively, and the four-year comparison indicates a +27.3% between 60 thousand and 250 thousand inhabitants and a substantial stagnation (+3.3% between 2019 and 2023) in the major cities, which therefore did not even keep up with the pace of prices.
The biggest push doesn't seem to come from parking bans, an obviously marginal phenomenon in smaller towns, so the spotlight shifts in particular to speed cameras.
The accusation is always the same, and it is the one aimed at small municipalities that would make "cash" with speed detectors, and inevitably the per capita data soars when a control is placed on a very busy road in the territory of a small municipality .
This is the case, for example, of the speed camera at Passo di Giau, in the Ampezzo Dolomites, whose destruction at the beginning of January attracted the attention of national news on the topic.
Last year the Municipality of Colle Santa Lucia collected fines of 747,094.42 euros, which amounts to 2,159 euros for each of the 346 inhabitants of the small town.
This is a figure 83 times higher than the national average, but it is obvious that the tourists who pay are the ones who crowd between Selva di Cadore and Cortina d'Ampezzo and often, especially on motorbikes, speed well above 50 per hour. limit expected on that mountain road.
In the major cities the phenomenon is very varied.
The ranking of per capita takings is dominated by Florence: the 198.6 euros per capita are in line with the 2022 figure, but are the result of an 85.5 percent leap compared to 2019, when Palazzo Vecchio collected 38 .7 million compared to 71.8 million last year.
The Florentine data goes against the trend compared to that of the other metropolises, which last year from Milan to Rome recorded a decline both compared to 2022 and 2019 (the decrease compared to the two reference years is 11.7 and 19.1% in the capital, and 3.7% and 12.5% in Milan).
Bologna, with its 81.5 euros per capita, occupies 11th place in the ranking of capitals in terms of revenue per inhabitant, with an increase of 12.1% on 2022 and 6.8% on 2019, in a therefore more dynamic moderate compared to the overall one.
The data, which as mentioned refer to actual collections, however, has a strong impact on the variable linked to the ability to collect the fines that are issued.
This is precisely the aspect that most strongly shapes the geography of fines, decidedly concentrated in the North where 84.3% of fines are paid;
only 15.7% is between the South and the Islands, where however 34.5% of Italians live.
In the South the average fluctuates between 10.3 euros per capita in the Islands and 13 euros in the continental South, i.e. approximately three times below the levels of the Center and North.
The city data helps to reveal the mystery: in Bologna last year 63.7% of the year's minutes were collected, in Milan 53.6 and in Florence 51.9%, while the same indicator collapses 14% in Naples and 12.2% in Palermo.
Broadening our gaze to the arrears (in "residual account" in technical language), the ratio between assessments and revenues ranges from 82% in Bologna to 40% in Naples, down to 21% in Palermo: where therefore the fines, whether created to combat wild parking or speeding, they remain ineffective in any case
For further information Agenzia ANSA Fines boom: Salvini, MIT is against 'do-it-yourself' speed cameras - World Motors - Ansa.it 'As a ministry we are committed to limiting the multiplication of "do-it-yourself" speed cameras everywhere' .
(HANDLE)
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