Speed cameras are tight: the decree in the Official Journal tomorrow. Here are the new rules

Remove electronic eyes from the streets in "km30" centers. News on where they can be placed and who decides

BOLOGNA – The brakes are pulled on the use of speed cameras for Municipalities, and even more so in “Cities at 30” per hour. After the chaos of complaints about non-approved speed cameras, and even before that, the fleximan protest across the country, tomorrow, Tuesday 28 May, the decree will be published in the Official Gazette which aims to regulate once for all the use and placement of speed detectors and to make motorists feel “unfairly harassed”. The measure, announced by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, introduces a series of innovations that will substantially change the use of speed cameras, putting everything in the foreground on road safety and not– this is the explicit intent of the minister- the revenues of the Municipalities through fines.

LESS DISCRETIONALITY TO MUNICIPALITIES

Thus, the main innovation is the reduction of the autonomy of the Municipalities in the management of speed cameras: according to the new decree, it will in fact be the Prefect who decides where to place the devices, including mobile ones, along the roads. There is therefore an obligation for local administrations to request authorization from the Prefect for any installation and they will have to demonstrate that the choice of location is justified because it is in areas “with a high accident rate”.

REPORTING AND PLACEMENT OBLIGATIONS

The decree also requires that speed cameras be reported in advance, at least one kilometer before outside inhabited centres, between the sign imposing the speed limit and the device, and also in inhabited centers they are minimum signaling obligations are foreseen: 200 meters away on urban traffic routes and 75 meters on all others.

THE SPEED PARAMETERS

The decree establishes that the speed detected by speed cameras will be parameterized to that required by the code for each type of road, such as 50 km/h in urban centres. On extra-urban roads, however, the devices can only be used to reduce speed by no more than 20 km compared to the ordinary limit. The intent to use speed cameras in a targeted and necessary way , such as near schools, kindergartens or hospitals, avoiding the use of speed detectors without a real security need.

IMMEDIATE DISPUTE

The decree also establishes the cases in which it can be used to immediate dispute. It is specified that it is possible to use devices found on board a moving vehicle without immediate complaint only in cases where it is not It is possible to place fixed or mobile workstations. In general, however, speed cameras on board police cars must be clearly recognisable. 

CITY 30 KM AWAY, WHAT CHANGES?

The rule according to which “the speed detected by the speed cameras will be parameterised to that envisaged by the Code for each type of road, i.e. 50 kilometers in urban centres” translates that – with the exception of cycle and cycle-pedestrian roads – the Municipalities they will not be able to place detection instruments where the limit is set at 30 per hour. There are some exceptions but they are very specific.

WHAT MUNICIPALITIES RISK

Local administrations will have 12 months to adapt to the new rules and put them into practice, but to avoid possible appeals, in the event of speed cameras suddenly becoming illegal, it will be necessary to take action as soon as possible (with lots of (in some cases, electronic eye removal)

Finally, the decree does not address, much less resolve, the issue of device approval, which emerged from a recent ruling by the Supreme Court.