Cedar Rapidians collecting more tickets

CEDAR RAPIDS — More Cedar Rapidians are collecting citations from automated traffic cameras now then when Cedar Rapids first installed speed and red light cameras on local roads and Interstate 380 — a sign the cameras are not working as they should, a civil engineering scholar said on Tuesday.

There's been a 20 percent increase in the number of tickets issued per month to motorists from Cedar Rapids from 2011 to 2014, according to data provided by the city of Cedar Rapids.

Also, the average speed on citations is increasing, another concern, said Joseph L. Schofer, Northwestern University professor of civil and environmental engineering.

'You think that you write a bunch of tickets at the beginning and people say, 'I'm going to get caught. I won't do that anymore.' And it would change behavior over time,' Schofer said.

'If the behavior isn't changing, if the mean speed isn't going down, if you are still writing the same number of tickets, something isn't working.'

The Cedar Rapids automated traffic camera program has come under fire after two of the busiest cameras were found to be out of compliance with state rules enacted on Feb. 12. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Cedar Rapids and camera vendor Gatso USA shortly after, and that case has been moved to federal court.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has raised questions about the appropriateness of some of the cameras, particularly at J Avenue on Interstate 380, even aside from the compliance issue.

Cedar Rapids officials have stood by the cameras, saying crash data shows a reduction of crashes and no fatalities since the cameras were installed in 2010.

The city has outlined solutions to the DOT's concerns, including getting a waiver for the cameras out of compliance, moving the speed limit signs or moving the cameras.

Tickets from the non-compliant cameras are still being enforced.

Some highlights

An analysis of traffic citation data, which was provided by the city in response to an open-records request, offers insight into how the program is working.

Among the findings:

• There have been 442,297 tickets issued since the program was rolled out February 2010 through Aug. 29, 2014.

• The number of citations issued per month in 2014 is 9,832, which is the highest rate ever, and the last three months in the data set — July, August and June — are the three highest citation months.

• The previous high was 8,711 per month in 2011, the first full year the cameras were in operation.

• The number of citations issued to Cedar Rapidians has increased from a monthly average of 1,845 in 2011 to 2,209 in 2014, a 20 percent increase.

• Proportionately, Cedar Rapids motorists receive 22.5 percent of all tickets issued, which is down slightly from 2013.

• The proportion of out-of-state residents collecting tickets has increased from 24 percent in 2010 to 36 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2014.

• The average speed for tickets has increased from 65.47 in 2010 to 67.81 in 2014.

• Citations have been issued to motorists from all 50 states.

• The cameras have clocked seven vehicles going 100 mph or more.

• The top speed was 109 mph on I-380 at J Avenue southbound on July 8, 2012, but the motorist was deemed not liable, according to the records.

The large majority of tickets are issued through speed cameras on I-380. The cameras bring in about $5.3 million a year, with $3.2 million going to Cedar Rapids and $2.1 million to Gatso, in fiscal 2013.

Cedar Rapids officials did not respond in time to comment for this story.

With 40 percent of the citations are going to non-residents, some have raised question about whether the cameras are fair to out-of-state motorists who may be unfamiliar with the local roads.

That was the sentiment of Stephen Johnson of Mason, Ohio, who was given a ticket while on his way from Minneapolis to Ohio this past summer.

'I'm sure everyone in the local area knows about the speed trap cameras, but if you are not a resident there's not many ways to figure it out, and that's not very fair,' Johnson said.

Other motorists, such as Anthony Schirmer, who commutes regularly from home in Benton County to St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, said that regardless of the numbers, the roads feel safer with the cameras.

'They ought to have more cameras,' Schirmer added.