Are the orange posts speed cameras or not? Let’s clarify and try to understand what they are for and how they work.
We are seeing them practically everywhere because they are increasingly widespread: we are talking about the “mysterious” orange columns placed on the roadside.
Their functioning is truly a “mystery” in the sense that they are not tools that are somehow regulated by the Traffic Laws. Their existence does not fall into any specific category, so it is worth clarifying.
Are they really speed cameras? Or are they simple deterrents to avoid running on roads with high traffic density or pedestrian passage? To answer this question, we need to go into the legal sphere for a moment.
Orange posts as speed cameras: are they legal? How do they work?
First of all let’s call these orange columns with their name: Veil Okay or sometimes even Speed Check. As the name implies, in fact, they would be tools designed to detect the speed of passing cars. But how are they regulated by law and above all how do they work?
The municipalities are obviously authorized to install these columns (otherwise we would not even see them) in order to function as tool containers for the detection of infringements of the Highway Code.
The container can be used legitimately even without provision and is in any case regulated by the Highway Code with reference to its characteristics.
In this sense, the regulations regulate not so much the container as the instrument that is placed inside itwhich use must be legitimate and compliant with what the law says.
Attention, therefore: this means that in order for these columns, or in any case the instrumentation inside them, to be active, the presence of control agents in particular on urban roads, local roads, urban flow roads and secondary extra-urban roads.
There the presence of the agents is instead not envisaged in the cases in which the instrumentation has been approved to operate autonomously, especially on motorways, main extra-urban roads and other secondary and urban extra-urban roads that are identified by the Prefect with a specific decree.
In all cases, however, the Velo Ok device in operation must be regularly reported in advance to passing cars: this applies to any type of instrument placed inside.
Finally, let’s move on to the most important question: Are the orange posts speed cameras? Yes, but not always. In the sense that we can find “empty” containers and others in which the necessary equipment has actually been installed.
This means that our advice, when you see one, is to always act as if it were active. You are not sure that it is really empty and you would thus avoid finding nasty surprises in the mailbox.
