The Iowa Department of Transportation recently installed numerous traffic cameras which point to the Highway 218 Floyd intersection in northeast Iowa. The D.O.T.’s Pete Hjelmstad says they aren’t speed cameras, they are there because the intersection is unique and they want to monitor traffic patterns.
“Our traffic and safety group out of Ames put them up since this is the only intersection of that type in the state and it’s just more or less to study the traffic movements just to see how the drivers are reacting to it,” Hjelmstad says.
Traffic cameras are common in larger cities, and Hjelmstad says like those cameras, these will eventually be accessible by the public.
He says they don’t have all the hardware yet to hook the cameras up, but once they do, the plan is to hook them up and make them available on-line through the D.O.T.’s traffic conditions website.
You can view the latest road conditions and traffic cameras where they are available on-line at: 511ia.org.
By Chris Berg, KCHA, Charles City