February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for Department of Transportation

Students lobby for mandatory helmet law for mopeds, scooters

February 9, 2012 By

Students from Iowa City West High School talk with legislators about a helmet law.

Four eastern Iowa high schoolers grieving the loss of a friend who died in a moped accident last fall are urging state legislators to pass a bill that would require kids under the age of 18 to wear a helmet.

The four made a direct pitch to three senators this morning. Seventeen-year-old Caroline Van Vorrhis, a senior at Iowa City West High School, gave the senators a pamphlet explaining their aims.

“We want to prevent other communities from going through the loss of a loved one that we’ve had to go through the past few months and, after doing some research, we are convinced that a helmet law would save lives,” Van Vorrhis said.

Caroline Found was riding a moped on an Iowa City street at about 9:30 at night this past August when she struck a curb, hit a tree and died from the impact. She was not wearing a helmet. She would have been a senior this year at Iowa City West. Her classmate, 17-year-old Leah Murray, argued a state law requiring helmet use would be more effective than any parental edict.

“As teenagers, we know first hand that our peers don’t always listen to their parents,” Murray said. “No matter how many times your parents tell you to wear a helmet, teenagers would be more likely to do so in order to avoid a smudge on their driving record or a fine than to appease their parents.”

Eighteen-year-old Olivia Lofgren, another Iowa City West senior, cited research suggesting helmets do not reduce visibility or impair the hearing of moped riders.

“No one plans to be in an accident,” Lofgren said. “Whether you drive a truck, RV, car or jeep, if you hit a moped driver, not only are they going to want to be protected, but you’re going to hope they have a helmet on.”

ABATE of Iowa represents motorcyclists who staunchly oppose mandatory helmet laws. Mark Maxwell, a member of the motorcycling group, spoke directly to the students.

“You don’t think that the responsibility lies on you kids to do what’s important for you?” Maxwell asked.

Murray, the 17-year-old, responded.

“Teenagers, we can’t always, like, think for ourselves,” Van Voorhis said. “We need the government to do it for us sometimes.”

None of the three senators who made up the initial subcommittee studying the bill supported it, however, killing its chances of becoming law this year. Senator Tom Hancock, a Democrat from Epworth, told the teens not to be too discouraged by the set back.

“I can tell by watching all of you, the expression on your faces and the moisture in your eyes that you really care,” Hancock said.

But Hancock suggested these kinds of mandates aren’t popular with legislators. Murray told reporters she and her friends won’t stop their lobbying campaign.

“They weren’t as open to it as we suspected, but they still left an opening and we’re going to sneak right in there and get this passed,” Murray said. A fourth high school student, from Solon, came to directly lobby legislators but did not testify during today’s subcommittee meeting.

Filed Under: Human Interest, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Improving Highway 63 between Oskaloosa & Waterloo

February 7, 2012 By

A bill pending in the Iowa Senate would put improvements to a section of Highway 63 between Oskaloosa and Waterloo higher on the Iowa DOT’s priority list.

Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, is working on legislation to classify that 100-mile segment of the highway as part of the state’s “commercial industrial network.”

“If you look at Highway 63 in particular, it carries more truck traffic north to Minnesota and Chicago than the Avenue of the Saints (does),” Danielson says. “And so anything we can do to improve the flow of business and commerce and improve the flow of Highway 63 is a good thing.”

According to Danielson, about one in every five vehicles on Highway 63 is a truck or semi.

“Truckers kind of want the most efficient route because it’s their business and, for a lot of reasons, Highway 63 carries significantly more truck traffic than other highways,” Danielson says.

Safety improvements to the Oskaloosa-to-Waterloo segment of Highway 63, like longer turning lanes and widening the shoulders, would be higher on the DOT’s priority list if the bill passes the legislature.

“A lot of (Highway) 63, you have single-wheel/single-car off-the-road accidents, which is the highest number of accidents on our two-lane highways,” Danielson says. “Just a simple four-foot shoulder reduces those accidents significantly.”

Highway 63 crosses the Iowa/Missouri border near Bloomfield, passes through Oskaloosa and Waterloo enroute to points north in Minnesota.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Ban on traffic cameras advances at statehouse

February 2, 2012 By

Traffic camera in Des Moines.

A bid to ban cameras that catch red-light-runners and speeders is gathering steam at the statehouse.

The House Transportation Committee today voted for the ban and the bill is headed for debate in the full House.

Representative Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque who is a member of the committee, would like to see limits on what motorists caught by the cameras can be charged, but without a consensus on that, he’s backing the ban.

“We have cities that have fines that are much higher than regular speeding tickets. Some are $75 and $100. Other ones are $200. There’s even reports of one community that has $300 tickets for running red lights,” Murphy says. “We’ve got to get this under control and I would support a ban before I’d let it go unfettered.”

Murphy is also concerned that the tickets and fines issued via these cameras are handled differenty than tickets handed out cops who pull people over for speeding.

“They go to collection agencies,” Murphy says, “and the way that they collect money is much more — I think most Iowans would find it offensive.”

Murphy once got a traffic ticket from Ottumwa in the mail — but he hadn’t been in Ottumwa for over a year.

“We are finding out there’s lots of errors made,” Murphy says. “And people are just paying the fines.”

Murphy wonders about the calibration of the stationary cameras, too, as the speed guns police and state troopers use are reset frequently.

Filed Under: Featured Story, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

DOT plan would use database to price vehicles for registration

January 31, 2012 By

The director of the Department of Transportation says a proposal under consideration would make it harder to lie about the cost of a used vehicle when someone pays their first registration fee. D.O.T. director, Paul Trombino, wants to assign a set value to cars and trucks, instead of letting a buyer report the purchase price.

He says it’s now hard to weed out people who report a lower price to pay a lower registration fee. “Maybe the value is substantially lower than the true value of what the vehicle is. We have an investigative unit department that does at times follow leads up on those issues, they do take time,” Trombino says.

He says the state should be relying on a database of vehicle values that is standard for everyone. “If there’s at least some sort of a value-based for that it would reduce a lot of effort from our perspective of kind of chasing these investigations as they come up, and would have a kind of set level that everyone agrees to, just as they do in the second year or beyond as the for the value of that vehicle,” Trombino explains.

Trombino says relying on a database, along with some other changes, could save the state as much as eight-million-dollars each year.

The D.O.T. is trying to find $50-million in “savings” in the agency’s budget this year. Governor Branstad directed the D.O.T. to come up with that amount to be redirected at road construction, rather than raise the state gas tax.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Legislators have doubts about $50 million in DOT savings

January 30, 2012 By

Legislators — both Democrats and Republicans — are raising questions about the $50 million in “savings” the Iowa D.O.T.’s director says he can wring out of the agency’s budget this year.

Governor Branstad directed the D.O.T. to come up with that amount, rather than raise the state gas tax, and redirect the $50 million to road construction. Representative Ralph Watts, a Republican from Adel, makes this observation about the numbers: “I’d put it in the area of conceptual savings and not hard savings that I can drive a stake into and nail it down.”

Watts directly challenged Iowa D.O.T. director Paul Trombino to defend his plan.

“How reasonably sure are you that you can do any of these?” Watts asked Trombino during a House Transportation Committee meeting late last week.

Trombino laughed, then replied: “Number one we wouldn’t have put forward them if we didn’t feel very confident that they offer us an opportunty towards enhancing the dollars that we have (for road construction). Secondly, there are some line-items here that are not conceptual, that we’ll see real-time dollars and we’ll see it in the short-term.”

Trombino’s boss, the governor, is aggressively defending the plan — and suggesting there will be “more than” $50 million in savings within the next year.

“Paul Trombino is very professional,” Branstad told reporters this morning. “…Considering the job he’s done just since he got here in May, you saw what he did in western Iowa with the damage to Interstate-680 and to the roads and bridges out there. In 34 days we rebuilt that road and we’ve gotten full reimbursement from the federal government, so when he tells me something, I believe it.”

But key legislators say part of the proposed $50 million in savings can’t be accomplished in the next 18 months. For example, one proposed change in managing and staffing the state’s weigh stations for trucks is controversial and would require debate and approval in the legislature this year for implementation in 2013.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Branstad, local officials argue over road money

January 24, 2012 By

Governor Branstad and officials from cities and counties got into a pointed discussion this morning over the condition of Iowa’s rural roads and city streets — and the need for a hike in the state gas tax. 

Branstad has indicated he may approve an increase in the state gas tax for next year, but only after a $50 million budget-cutting plan unveiled today is implemented at the Iowa DOT. Branstad urged city and county officials to cut their own budgets as well, to convince the public a gas tax increase is the only option.

“There’s still a lot of skepticism out there that we’re managing things as well as we should,” Branstad said.

But local government officials, like Keokuk County Supervisor Mike Hadley, say their road budgets have already been cut to the bone.

“I understand what the governor’s saying. I just want him to really understand what we are saying,” Hadley told reporters after he spoke to the governor. “We just can’t keep putting it off.”

According to Hadley, Keokuk County has a budget of less than $5 million for its paved county roads and bridges, but the actual need is more than $15 million. Hadley explains the situation this way: ”It’s not, ‘The roof is leaking.’ The roof is gone.”

Dubuque County Supervisor Wayne Demmer told Branstad counties have “maxed out” and have no where else to cut because the gas tax is the same as it was in 1989.

“Look at the cost of construction and counties today are still trying to fix roads on construction budgets from years back,” Demmer said. “We’d sure like to hear something for the counties, to help us.”

Branstad suggested county and city officials are misreading the public if they think most Iowans would support a gas tax increase now.

“I go to all 99 counties. I hear the people that want higher taxes…but I also hear from those that are very skeptical and feel there’s a lot of waste in government,” Branstad said. “They call the radio shows and write letter to the editor and they have strong opinions as well…and we need to prove to them that what we’re doing is the best and most efficient way to use those resources.”

Branstad told reporters after the meeting that county officials should close stretches of rural roads which pass by uninhabited farmland.

“There’s a lot of people think we probably have too many roads and the farms are a lot bigger,” Branstad said.

That means there’s not a farmhouse along each mile of road, according to Branstad, and the governor said an inventory of rural roads should produce a list of rarely-traveled roads that can be closed.

Harlan City Administrator Terry Cox told Branstad during the meeting that cities and counties need extra tax money now because crucial road maintenance projects can’t wait ’til 2015.

“Thank you for listening, but don’t yell at me,” he said to Branstad, getting laughter from Branstad and the rest of the crowd.

Branstad replied: “I’m just passionate about this. Don’t take anything personal.”

As for the $50 million in budget-cuts to the Iowa DOT’s bugdet, the agency’s director concludes he can cut about $10 million by ensuring road construction projects are done ahead of schedule. The DOT director also suggests making some money by selling excess land the state owns along highways and letting the companies that maintain highway rest areas pay a fee to the state to put up signs advertising their services.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

DOT director to announce plans for budget cuts

January 24, 2012 By

The director of the Iowa Department of Transportation later today will release his plan for cutting $50-million from the D.O.T.’s budget. Governor Branstad asked for the plan last fall and the details will be revealed at 10 o’clock this morning.

“The first and most important thing we need to do is demonstrate to the public that we can reduce administrative costs and duplication and make government more efficient,” Branstad says. But it appears the governor is warming to the idea of raising the state gas tax next year, as a phase two of the plan to address road and bridge construction needs.

“We do recognize that in out-years there is a short-fall. I think they identified a short-fall of about $215 million,” Branstad says. “…I happen to think that the most equitable way to deal with that is a user fee.” Senator Tom Rielly, a Democrat from Oskaloosa, is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

“I think we are about to start taking the first steps in 22 years to start fixing up our roads and bridges,” Rielly says. Rielly and the Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee have proposed raising the gas tax by four cents in 2013 and another four cents in 2014.

They’d also increase the sales tax on vehicles to 6%, which would be equal the state sales tax charged on other purchases. Both of those increases, however, would happen after the $50-million in reallocation within the D.O.T. budget. The state’s 22 cents per gallon gas tax was set in 1989.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts