Updated: I.C. eyes cameras to prevent crashes

IOWA CITY - The City Council is being asked to approve the installation of a new type of camera that combines speed monitoring and traffic light changes to prevent crashes.

The council is scheduled on Tuesday to discuss the traffic-enforcement cameras and hold the first consideration of an ordinance that would allow the cameras to be installed.

The council discussed red-light cameras on a few occasions last year, and only Connie Champion opposed them. In November the council chose to hold off on a vote until three new council members took their seats this month.

Council members had said they weren't interested in speed cameras, but Police Chief Sam Hargadine is asking them to reconsider.

The reason, he said, is the availability of new cameras that use speed and red-light technology simultaneously to identify vehicles that are going to run lights and then preemptively prevent cross traffic from getting a green light, according to a memo from Hargadine and transportation planner John Yapp released Thursday.

The cameras would let violators clear an intersection, therefore helping to prevent collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, they wrote.

“I think it is a different ballgame,” Hargadine said in an interview.

The cameras require the speed function be included, but the council could choose not to cite speeders, he said.

Council member Terry Dickens is for both cameras as a way to improve public safety.

“The fact that you don't get picked up by a police officer doesn't mean that you didn't break the law,” he said.

Hargadine and Yapp are proposing a $100 fine for red-light violations caught on camera, the same as Cedar Rapids and Muscatine.