How many times have you left your car in a blue-line parking space with an expired parking ticket, hoping the parking enforcement officer wouldn’t happen to pass by in those ten minutes? That little daily gamble has its days numbered.
And this time it’s not just speculation: parking management has been back under ATAC’s control since July, and “street control” will be introduced on January 1, 2027. Enforcement officers will patrol the streets with a scanner equipped with cameras and artificial intelligence, capable of reading license plates and determining in real time who has paid and who hasn’t.
One of the new developments in Rome set to change the habits of those who park in the city.
The scanner reads the license plate, but the ticket is still issued by the parking enforcement officer
The mechanism is simple: as it passes among parked cars, the system compares each license plate with recorded payments—from parking meters to apps like EasyPark, MooneyGo, or Atac.
If everything is in order, it moves on; if something doesn’t add up, a closer inspection is triggered.
But no one here is becoming a traffic officer. The operators remain traffic auxiliaries: they can only monitor metered parking, and before issuing a ticket, they must verify in person that the parking fee has not actually been paid. Only then is the ticket issued, which for non-payment starts at €42 and can go up to €173, with a 30% discount if paid within five days.
From the historic center to Parioli: where the crackdown begins
The stated goal is to reduce parking fee evasion—the kind that often slips past on-foot inspections. The new system will launch on a trial basis starting January 1, 2027, and will complement the sensors of the Sospass project, already being tested in over 7,500 parking spaces across the historic center, Prati, Parioli, Flaminio, Salario, Trieste, and Nomentano.
During the trial phase, effectiveness will be measured using specific quality indicators, starting with the number of inspection shifts actually carried out compared to those scheduled.
Goodbye to 16,000 free parking spots; 39 million at stake
Behind the technology lies a major economic plan as well. The new contract entrusts ATAC with metered parking through December 31, 2027, and confirms the expansion of blue parking zones: the approximately 72,633 spaces projected for the end of 2024 will be joined by an additional 16,000 as outlined in the New Parking Plan, often replacing parking spaces that are currently free.
Base rates remain around €1 per hour outside the restricted traffic zones (ZTL) and €1.20 inside (they vary by zone and time of day), but revenue is growing: an estimated 19 million for the second half of 2026 and 39 million in 2027, a large portion of which stays with ATAC to manage the service.
It’s no coincidence that the opposition is calling it a new tax, while the city claims it will lead to greater vehicle turnover and less illegal parking.
And we’ve already seen that this expansion is a slippery slope: in early July, on Via Catullo in Prati, some parking lines were repainted blue around cars that were already parked there—complete with a ticket on the windshield. After the video went viral, ATAC backtracked, citing “overzealousness,” and rescinded those fines.
For those who live in Rome and own a car, counting on a parking attendant’s distraction will therefore become a gamble, and it’s best to get used to the idea before 2027 rolls around.
