The “treasure” is significant and places the Municipality of Bergamo at the top of the ranking of Italian provincial capitals. We talk about contraventions of the Highway Code and how much municipal administrations collect from the high fines imposed on undisciplined motorists. Well, according to the annual report of Facile.it (which is based on data from Siope, the information system for the operations of public bodies), in 2023 Palazzo Frizzoni grossed approximately 7.8 million euros (exactly 7,786,151 euros), placing it in 21st place among the provincial capital cities. The figure is significant and even more so if we consider the fine payment rate, which increased last year by a few percentage points compared to 2022: two out of three motorists, in fact, paid the fine received in 2023 ( 65%, compared to around 60% the previous year, above the national average).
In 2023, Italian municipalities collected more than 1.5 billion euros for violations of the Highway Code by families.
The absolute numbers tell of 163,029 fines issued by the local police (one thousand more than in 2022), for a total of approximately 12 million euros, 800 thousand euros more than the previous year. «Fiscal loyalty is what has always characterized our fellow citizens, even though getting a fine doesn’t please anyone – explains the deputy mayor and budget councilor Sergio Gandi –. The people of Bergamo pay taxes and also pay fines and the municipal offices certainly pay attention to citizens when they ask for information, as well as punctuality in notification.” Overall, in 2023, i Italian municipalities have collected more than 1.5 billion euros for violations of the rules of the Highway Code against families. In the collection ranking drawn up by Facile.it, the Municipality of Bergamo is placed in third place among the Lombardy capitals, behind Milan (which with 147 million euros is also in first place in Italy ahead of Rome and Florence with, respectively, 138 and 71 million), and in Brescia, which is close to 12.5 million euros. In the Lombardy ranking, Pavia (6.4 million euros), Como (5.4 million) and Mantua (3.5 million) follow.
In the coming weeks, with the opening of the Fara car park, new cameras will be turned on and new limited traffic zones will be established, it is possible to predict that these measures will also produce some effects in terms of sanctions.
Facile.it’s research also takes into account another piece of data, that of the per capita value of fines, although, it should be specified, not all fines are inflicted on resident motorists and, indeed, in some areas of the country tourists and commuters contribute significantly important way to the overall data. This is also the case with regard to the Municipality of Bergamo: in fact, 60% of the high fines in the city concern the violation of limited traffic zones (the Ztl) and among these almost eight motorists fined out of ten, or a large majority, are not residents of the city. “Traffic flows in 2023 were greater and sanctions also increased as a result,” added Councilor Gandi, commenting on the data. The tourists arriving for the Italian Capital of Culture and the establishment of new restricted traffic areas in the city did the rest, leading the quantity of cars in circulation to exceed pre-Covid levels. «Today, if anything, we must ask ourselves the question of how to reduce the number of private vehiclesi”, said Gandi again. In the coming weeks, with the opening of the Fara car park, new cameras will be turned on and new limited traffic zones will be established: «It is possible to foresee that these measures will also produce some effects in terms of sanctions – said the budget councilor again -. After the 30 days of experimentation with local police officers, we expect a certain increase in sanctions, as always happens when new gates are established. The hope, obviously, is that this does not happen, also because it will be laid quite explicit signage which will provide motorists with all the information necessary to comply with the new rules”.
