Warning stay away from Cedar Rapids
 

Not only does Cedar Rapids suck and smell awful, avoid the
City if you can. Hidden speed cameras everywhere and they cut you no slack, especially, on I 380. Just received a $75 bill from Hertz for speeding. It’s the third one in 4 years flying into Iowa. I flew into Des Moines that year. After finding out about the cameras after the first ticket, I drove what I thought was below the speed limit the last two times, and sure I wasn’t speeding. $75 is a big toll just to drive through that crappy city. I can’t think of any reason to go there. It’s just a drive by City on I380.

Don't speed cameras use radar? Valentine ...

They usually have a sign up to say what the speed limit is. And if you stick to that it doesn't cost you the $75.

Well, I knew they had cameras was and watched my speed. Still got another ticket.

Hmmm. Could be they are picking on rental car plates, knowing the car likely to be driven by a non local who wouldn't fight the ticket. Still, if I travelled a lot & rented cars, I'd still think packing a radar detector might be a good idea.

By the way, that's a low fine by Oregon standards. Here, it's hundred$.

See, now that's just not nice. $75 is cheap. My daughter got hit with $110 up around Cleveland. And to show that it's about public safety and not just generating revenue, tickets from traffic cameras don't put points on your license like getting pulled over by a cop would.

Lived there in 1957. AF base close.

People are mean there, too. I remember some lady called me a towhead.

Iowa has speed cameras up all over the state. It is a major revenue stream for them. They were one of the first to use red light cameras back in the 90's. Even though they have been ruled uncostitutional by the state supreme court, they are still up, active and sending tickets because cities can't afford to get rid of them.

The most profitable camera is on I-80 in LeClaire when you come off the Mississippi River bridge from Illinois. The speed limit drops from 70 to 65 and no sign indicating the change until the camera has already caught you. And the cameras will get you if you speed up going the other way back into Illinois.

From the news:

With two months still to go in the year since LeClaire’s two speed cameras have been issuing tickets, more than 88,000 motorists have been cited.

By the end of January, the city’s camera vendor, Sweden-based Sensys Gatso Group, had levied $6,310,150 in fines.

Of the $4,331,375 collected in speed-camera fines to date, the city’s portion was $2,214,110. The remaining $2,117,265 went to Sensys Gatspo, city records indicate.

It sounds like Iowa is the kind of place I don't need to go.

As a matter of fact, looking at the states around Iowa, I probably don't need to go to those either, so I don't see any reason to get within a state of Iowa.

Tsk, Tsk. Both my father and my son were called tow heads too, until their hair darkened as they got older.

Best
Les

I just drove through there. There are three lanes on the north side of town. One is auto and two are solid semi. There is a lot of trucking traffic.

It's a construction zone. But the Ohio DOT turned it into an autocross challenge by working on both sides of the road simultaneously. You can see the old lines of the freeway which had a gentle sweep being replaced by quick left-right-left jags. The truck next to me was swinging a few feet over into my lane in order to avoid the one next to him. No extra caution warning signs or speed limit signs forebode this mess in advance. You just turn the corner and bam you are in the funhouse. To add misery they put the concrete barriers tight against both sides. I believe the semi behind me lost some paint through that pinch point.

You guys pay camera tickets? Ha. In AZ only out-of-staters who didn't know any better paid them. And those were the people the state absolutely would never go after in the first place. I don't know how the law in IA was written, but in AZ getting a ticket in the mail was not considered proper service or notice. The state would have to send a process server out to serve you, which they obviously never did to visitors from other states. If you could avoid the process server for 120 days, the ticket goes way. Some cities still run their own camera ticket schemes, but the state got rid of them long ago. I'd not pay it.

Texas outlawed them. But at the time, they were a "safety fee" not a "fine." They were not considered an infraction, but were instead supposed to be some sort of safety fee, so any rules that applied to a normal ticket didn't apply to tickets from cameras.

The speed camera tickets don't assign points on your DL, but the red light camera ticket could if you blew them off. I got a "courtesy notice" from Scottsdale once when I rode my bike past a camera at about twice the speed limit. Until then I had always heard they could not mail a ticket unless they could match the face in the ticket photo with the one on your DL. I was wearing a full face helmet with tinted visor and sunglasses, but they still ID'ed me. I haven't gotten once since from Scottsdale, so I haven't been able to try my luck at blowing off the fine. But I will not pay it if they mail me one. Just will not.

I know somebody that parked across the crosswalk at a red light to turn right. The camera got her. Not the first minor infraction I am sure but she is an overall safe driver. No more phone calls or radio. There was some type of problem with the car insurance that followed but I don't know the details. So without insurance the State of Florida cancelled her driver's license. It was a mess.

The forward camera on my Civic records every speed limit sign while driving.
If I drive over the limit...it flashes a pic of the sign on the dash. It's programmable for 5mph increments over the limit.

I have it set for 10 mph over.

That's pretty cool.

We get through there often when we go to Lincoln or Emporia or the CR airport. Never had an issue. Good hobby shop just off 151 in Marion.

I guess Iowa has had a certain reputation for a long time. Meredith Willson wrote this for The Music Man in the 1950s.

Iowa Stubborn

Oh, there's nothing halfway,
About the Iowa way to treat you,
When we treat you,
Which we may not do at all!

There's an Iowa kind,
A kind-a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude,
We've never been without that we recall!

We can be cold as the falling
Thermometer in December if you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so by-gone stubborn, we can
Stand touching noses for a week at a time,
And never see eye-to-eye.

But what the heck!
You're welcome,
Join us at the picnic.
You can have your fill of all the food you bring yourself.
You really ought to give Iowa a try,
Provided you are contrary.

We can be cold as our falling
Thermometers in December if you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so by-gone stubborn, we can
Stand touching noses for a week at a time,
And never see eye-to-eye.

But we'll give you our shirt,
And a back to go with it,
If your crop should happen to die.
So what the heck!
You're welcome!
Glad to have you with us!
Even though we may not ever mention it again!

You really ought to give Iowa,
Hawk-eye, Iowa,
Dubuque, Des Moines, Davenport, Marshaltown, Mason City, Ke-o-kuk, Ames,
Clearlake!
Ought to give Iowa a try!

I feel like a multiplier might be better...