Milan Police to notify drivers of parking fines by phone and not by car windshield ticket

This will be another boost to digitalization, but this time using a stick rather than a carrot

Starting from 1 April, and it’s no April’s Fool joke, Milan’s traffic police will start issuing fines for incorrectly parking digitally by sending a notification to the driver’s phone, through a dedicated app. That means no more tickets on the car shield and the wipers.

For those who might be thinking: Great, then I’ll forget to download the app, or I’ll use my old flip phone, there’ll be even more sanctions. Such drivers will still get the fines delivered to their homes, however, with a hefty additional fee.

Would that increase the collectability of fines?

The new change to the traffic sanctions notification system was recently agreed upon by Milan’s City Council with a view to boosting digitalization in services and hopefully, improving the collectability of parking fines.

And it’s not like Milan isn’t efficient in that last respect. The city is a champion in Italy when it comes to filling the coffers from fines – last year alone, some 103 million euros from sanctions padded the local budget. Much of these funds are then used for road maintenance and the replacement of traffic signs.

The Municipality warns residents that they should download the citizen’s file app and activate notifications. Those who do not proceed with this new regulation, or ignore the rings on their mobile phone, will receive the notice at home with an added fee of 14 euros.  

But that's not all. The latter will also lose the possibility of paying the 30% discount on the parking fines they get since this is reserved only for those who pay the fine within 5 days.

Nevertheless, opposition in the City Council argued that the measure will be ineffective as it would only lead to “chaos” and a worse rate of fine collectability.