Speeding on Italian roads UPDATE

Great info! The last paragraph is Pesce di aprile worthy.

Roberto, maybe you can answer something I always wonder about: how are Italians not constantly saddled with speeding tickets? My husband is a fairly cautious driver and stays at just around the speed limit, and on some roads we observe many cars pass us in the dust. Just curious! We only got one honk on this trip--in a tunnel with several large trucks, a car came upon us wanting to go a lot faster.

Italians get speeding tickets too, and often have their license suspended for a period when they run out of the 20 points allotted with a license.

Those who drive fast are:
1. People who know very well the specific road they are speeding on, therefore know where the working fixed autovelox camera machines are. For example there are roads in Tuscany where I know where to speed and where to slow down.
2. People who use navigation apps that warn you of all autovelox machines, like I-Coyote, Sygic, Autovelox Italia, CoPilot, Waze, TomTom Autovelox. These apps are also communities that warn you of mobile Patrol traffic and speed check.
3. Both of the above.

You are unlikely to be part of no.1, but you can be part of no.2 if you load the proper App on your phone. No guarantee you are 100% safe, but just a lower chance.

Ah, of course--technology (I'm not much of a driver and not so handy with technology for that matter), thanks!

When I drove in Italy, I took the low tech solution.

Stayed withing the posted limits.

On multi lane roads just kept to the right. On the other roads just went the limit. No problem.

Interesting its a patent issue that unplugged the Speed Tutor.

In Modena a few weeks ago more than 400 tickets were given out in two days on a stretch of the road (not the freeway). I read about this at the same time that I was reading about what Roberto posted. In our daily drives from nearby Vignola to Modena I was amazed by how fast some of the cars went.

When I drove in Italy, I took the low tech solution.

Stayed withing the posted limits.

On multi lane roads just kept to the right. On the other roads just went the limit. No problem.

It's amazing how well this approach works. In Tuscany, the scenery was so beautiful I didn't want to drive through it fast. You're on vacation. If you feel you have to speed from one place to another you're not doing it right. Your most serious infraction is violating La Dolce Far Niente.

I'll add that on country roads where there is faster moving (speeding) traffic, be courteous and pull over and let the locals by. I practiced this and usually got appreciative waves as they scooted on their way.

It's amazing how well this approach works.

I have noticed it even works in other countries as well - not only Italy.

Dear Mr. Roberto da Firenze , please can you send link where you read about "The removal of this system was based on an Italian court decision following a lawsuit for patent infringement brought to court against the Frreway operating company by the inventor of the system (the Craft company based in Greve in Chianti)."

While the average Italian drives very fast indeed, while sitting 6" from the car in front, I can attest to their skill and ninja-like reactions.

On our last trip a few weeks ago, our hire car (Nissan Micra) started to beep at me occasionally, for no apparent reason. After a few days, this stopped and I thought no more about it. A couple of weeks later, I was on a motorway, doing around 110kph in the overtaking lane, passing a truck in a confined tunnel. I had the obligatory 'boot ornament' right behind me, waiting for me to get the heck out of 'his lane'. Suddenly, and without warning, the brakes were slammed on! Thankfully, my tailgating chum must have been an ex-F1 driver, for he somehow managed to avoid hitting me while I frantically worked out what was happening, hit the hazard flashers and pulled over into the slow lane, now behind the truck. The car seemed to have reverted to non-crazy mode and so I was able to get out of the tunnel and onto the hard shoulder.

Then it dawned on me. The car must have the new-fangled 'collision avoidance' system, which is supposed to warn you if you're too close to an object in front and, if you ignore the warning and appear to be headed for impact, it hits the brakes for you. The system must have been over-sensitive, the beeps from the week earlier being triggered by walls next to the road when we were on narrow, twisty roads near Bellagio. It then freaked out big-time when I was between the big truck and the tunnel wall, decided I didn't know how to drive and so slammed on the brakes. Clearly, it was defective. I then spent fifteen minutes messing with the dashboard settings, switching it first to English language, then tracking down the collision avoidance menu and disabling it.

It didn't happen again and I reported the problem to the hire car company which, without me requesting it or making a formal complaint, refunded the whole month's rental fee!

So, maniacs the Italians may be behind the wheel, but they are also pretty darn skilled!

Since someone above was interested in the link to the news I posted in the original post, I provided one such link below. There are many more news outlets that reported the same piece of news.
https://www.toscananews.net/azienda-greve-chianti-rivendica-brevetto-del-sistema-autostradale-tutor/

I’d like also to update everybody that a new Tutor system is back and operating again since last July 25. Not sure what they did to circumvent the patent issue.

Roberto: I had remembered you posted this in June
Was driving the highway that runs along the north western coast ; believe that would be E80 (Genoa to France border basically) in early July and noticed the Tutor notifications and overhead signs were still in affect ; same as normal.
Not sure if the system was still active or not at this time???

As I said I remembered you said it was off, but didn't want to roll the dice so at the time, I stayed within the average for the stretches the Tutor was ; for those unfamiliar the Tutor system might come into affect for a 5 mile stretch in the middle of a 30 mile highway.

So how the locals and tourists avoid tickets is the speed like crazy in the 15 miles of freeway leading up to it and then slow the heck down for that 5 mile Tutor stretch ; then go back to speeding for the next 15 miles, etc... ; and places where there are speed cameras ; same thing they know where they are and slow down accordingly.
The tutor areas are announced on overhead billboards as well as by routing GPS apps like Waze. The traffic cameras Waze will announce them upcoming and also they can be seen visually if you recognize the boxes.

It is very rare in Italy and most parts of Europe I have driven to see police looking actively for speeders.
I am sure it happens but most tourists won't see any.
In the US that is more common.

Police patrols checking speed from the car is used in regular highways and even city streets, not so much on the toll freeways where Tutor is active. On the superstrada (no toll freeways), like Florence to Siena, they generally follow you and tape you with their dashboard camera. That is how they caught a friend of mine who lives near Colle Val D’Elsa. Occasionally Italians get caught too and some of their points deducted (they are given 20 to start). Once you lose all 20 points, the drivers’ license is suspended for a few months. For speed limit violations the points deducted are 3 or 6 or 10, depending on how many km per hour above the speed limit you were going. If you get speed violations of over 40km/h above the speed limit more than once in two years, it’s an automatic suspension of the license, regardless of the points available.