The Iowa Department of Transportation has released its review of speed cameras under new rules created by the state legislature. Cities and counties had to apply to the DOT and show the camera is placed in an area due to the number and severity of traffic accidents there.
There were 139 requests and only 11 stationary cameras were approved. That includes four in Cedar Rapids, and Davenport, and one each in Des Moines, Leclaire and Marshalltown. The DOT also denied 66 locations where cities wanted mobile speed cameras, but approved 143 mobile locations in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Marion, Muscatine, Sioux City and Waterloo.
Prairie City mayor Chad Alleger says the denial of their three fixed cameras is a surprise because the cameras reduced speeding near schools. “The purpose is to make our community safer, so I don’t understand why you would deny the communities a way to do that,” he says.
The DOT says a seven-member panel made the decisions based on the law, which says cameras can be approved if they’re appropriate, necessary, and the least restrictive way to address traffic safety at those locations. Mayor Alleger believes they made a good case to keep the cameras. “We have the data to show that we have reduced speed out on [highway] 163 and in front of the school. So I don’t understand the explanation of ‘not necessary,’ because it proves that it is working.”
Eighteen communities were fully denied permits for automated speed enforcement.
(Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio contributed to this story)