Skip to main content

Iowa DOT approves new traffic camera rules

Iowa DOT’s Transportation Commission has unanimously approved proposed rules for red light and speed cameras that require cities to prove the devices are needed to improve safety on highways. The rules require a city to perform an engineering analysis of the highway and also present some alternatives to the cameras to address any safety issues. Cities that currently have cameras installed would have to do the engineering study by May 2014. The rules must still go through the legislative approval process
December 11, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Iowa DOT’s Transportation Commission has unanimously approved proposed rules for red light and speed cameras that require cities to prove the devices are needed to improve safety on highways.

The rules require a city to perform an engineering analysis of the highway and also present some alternatives to the cameras to address any safety issues. Cities that currently have cameras installed would have to do the engineering study by May 2014. The rules must still go through the legislative approval process before being enacted.

Iowa is the only state in the US that allows cameras to be permanently installed along interstate roads or highways managed by the state. However, the state has no laws governing their use, leaving the decision to county supervisors and city councils to decide whether to install them.

Nine Iowa cities as well as Polk County use a mix of fixed and mobile cameras on state-run roads or interstate highways.

Related Content

  • Cross-border enforcement directive annulled, but remains in place
    May 12, 2014
    The European Court of Justice has stopped a directive designed to ease cross-border exchange of information adopted by the European Parliament and Council in October 2011. This directive sets up a procedure for the exchange of information between member states in relation to eight road traffic offences (speeding, non-use of a seat-belt, failing to stop at a red traffic light, drink-driving, driving under the influence of drugs, failing to wear a crash helmet, use of a forbidden lane and illegally using a m
  • Road user charging potential solution to transportation problems
    December 14, 2012
    A number of new and highly significant open road tolling schemes have just been launched or are soon to ‘go live’. Systems of road user charging are flexing their muscles as the means to solve politically sensitive transportation problems, reports Jon Masters. Gothenburg, January 2013, will be the time and place for the launch of the next city congestion charging scheme in Europe. In a separate development, Los Angeles County’s tolled Metro ExpressLanes began operating in November 2012 – the latest in a ser
  • House proposes US$10.5 billion eight-month highway bill
    July 10, 2014
    The US Government House Ways and Means Committee is proposing a US$10.5 billion, eight-month transportation funding bill to push the debate over road and transit spending into the next Congress. The proposal, which calls for a temporary extension of current transportation funding levels until 31 May 2015, comes as lawmakers try to come up with a way to replenish the Department of Transportation's depleted Highway Trust Fund before a predicted August bankruptcy date. The traditional funding source fo
  • Infrastructure spending is an investment in economic recovery
    January 20, 2012
    Transportation funding is caught in the crossfire as the President calls for infrastructure investment and a reinvigorated Republican majority in the House pushes back on federal spending. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Every few months some politician or pundit declares that the country is on the verge of making the most important political decision in a generation. The 2006 mid-term election; the 2008 Presidential election; the passing of the stimulus bill; healthcare reform; the mania surrounding Tea Pa