Traffic cameras could fit I.C. needs

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Iowa City councilors are giving serious consideration to the installation of traffic-enforcement cameras. They've asked staff for more information about the devices.

But if they're looking for proof that traffic cameras are a good public safety tool, they have only to look north to Cedar Rapids.

Traffic cameras clearly have improved road safety there. Iowa City, with its large number of pedestrians, may have even more reason to give the cameras a try.

According to Cedar Rapids police records, motor vehicle crashes are down 40 percent at the eight intersections where red-light cameras were installed last year. Crashes are down 8 percent throughout the city - something police attribute to safer driver behavior citywide.

Speed cameras, which Iowa City councilors say they'll consider separately from red-light cameras, also appear to have yielded public safety results in Cedar Rapids. While there was an average of two fatal crashes annually on Interstate 380 through Cedar Rapids in recent years, last year - after speed cameras were installed - there were none.

A handful of other Iowa cities with cameras have seen similar, sometimes dramatic, public safety improvements. Last month, Davenport Police Chief Frank Donchez Jr. told state legislators that in the seven years his community has used cameras, crashes have been greatly reduced at intersections, drivers slowed down throughout the city and insurance rates dropped.

There are other benefits, as well. Revenue from tickets can fund public safety equipment and staff - money Iowa City leaders have struggled to come up with in recent budget years. Reducing crashes and monitoring problematic intersections can free up officers for other calls and patrolling.

Some critics say traffic cameras are a thinly disguised attempt to squeeze money from motorists. They should take heart from Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine - he's told council he could take or leave speed cameras - the big money makers in other cities. His focus is on making intersections safer.

With transportation planners, Hargadine has identified 10 possible locations for red-light cameras - intersections that accounted for 163 red-light collisions and 32 injuries from 2001 to 2010. Reducing crashes at those intersections clearly is in the public interest.

In Iowa City, where thousands of pedestrians crowd downtown intersections every day, there's that much more reason to crack down on drivers who run red lights.

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