Slow down

Advice for speeding drivers -- and legislators who are willing to give them a pass

Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash

The lessons of a good teacher last a lifetime.

Case in point: I remember my driving teacher in high school preached “defensive driving” like it was the Gospel.

You can’t predict what another driver will do, Mr. Yockey would say, but what you can do is be prepared for the worst.

I think of Mr. Yockey sometimes when I’m driving. It’s become a habit of mine to aggressively scan intersections as I approach, watching for drivers who, inattentive or in too big a hurry, blast through a red light.

As any driver will tell you, it’s more common than it used to be.

Driving itself is more dangerous than it used to be. The evidence is clear. In 2022, there were an estimated 42,795 traffic deaths in the US, according to the federal government.

That’s up from a yearly average of 36,791 between 2015 and 2019. Back then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the US ranked among the highest of 29 other high-income countries in traffic deaths.

I’m sure our ranking hasn’t improved since then. The per-mile fatality rate in this country has risen by 18%

There are a lot of reasons why traffic deaths are up, and it will take a multi-pronged strategy to bring them back down. But we know this: Speed kills. And in 2019, more than 10,000 U.S. traffic fatalities were in crashes where at least one driver was speeding, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The economic costs are astronomical, too: $46 billion in 2019, or $141 per person, NHTSA says.

We all share in those costs; in fact, the agency estimates that three-quarters of crash-related costs are paid by people who are not involved – through such things as insurance premiums and congestion-related expenses, like traffic delays and fuel consumption.

An automated traffic enforcement camera on Division Street in Davenport. (Photo: Ed Tibbetts)

In Davenport, one of the ways the city has worked to lessen traffic accidents is with the use of speed and red-light cameras.

We’re not the only ones. The cameras are widely used across the country.

For years, though, they’ve been a favorite target of some state lawmakers, including in Iowa.

Here, some legislators have tried for a long time to kill them.

Failing that, they’ve taken a different approach; now, they seek to heavily regulate the cameras. And as the end of this year’s session approaches, there are a number of bills in the House and Senate still seeking to crack down on the cameras, which are in use in 19 cities.

This week, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported on an advancing Senate bill that would force cities to get state approval before installing a camera.

Senate supporters reject the idea that these cameras are aimed at improving traffic safety. They falsely state they’re just money makers. “These are revenue generators, period. That’s it,” said Sen. Adrian Dickey, R-Packwood, according to the Capital Dispatch.

That opinion didn’t stop senators from inserting a provision that demands cities turn some of those revenues over to the state’s Road Use Tax Fund. Apparently, revenue generating isn’t so bad as long as legislators gets a taste.

Like others, I’m skeptical of how some of these cameras are used. A Legislative Services Agency report said the small city of LeClaire in Scott County, issued almost 80,000 tickets in 2022. That is nearly twice the number as Davenport, a larger city and with more cameras. And even though Des Moines has twice the number of cameras as LeClaire, the LSA says, the small city upriver still issued about 70% as many tickets last year as Iowa’s much larger capital city.

Still, here’s my concern: The Senate bill contains a lengthy list of criteria that cities must meet to get a DOT permit. That could mean some cities won’t go to the trouble and expense of seeking a permit.

The City of Davenport received just $1.7 million from the cameras in 2022, which is a miniscule part of its overall budget.

I’d hate to see these cameras go away. The city has ably demonstrated they’ve lessened the number of accidents and caught speeders. I confess, I’ve been snared by some of these cameras myself in the past. Alas, I haven’t always followed Mr. Yockey’s advice.

It’s not just Republican-dominated legislatures that are targeting these cameras, either.

In New York, the state legislature keeps a tight leash on the use of automated cameras.

The New York Times reported last year on a camera placed near a school that was catching 435 speeders each day. But as the Times reported:

…the camera has to be shut off from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and on weekends because of a state law that was passed 150 miles away in Albany — even though nearly 60 percent of the fatal crashes across the city during the pandemic happened during those hours. The law links camera use to school hours.

“Speeding takes place 24 hours a day in the city, but our cameras go to sleep from 10 to 6 and take the weekends off,” said Danny Harris, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group.

In other words, state lawmakers are giving speeders a pass, as long as they put the pedal to the metal at the right time of day.

In Iowa, no time seems to be off limits for speeds that are inexcusable.

The Iowa State Patrol issued more than 1,100 tickets for drivers going faster than 100 miles per hour last year; by comparison, only 659 were issued in 2019.

Yet, legislators are considering bills to make it harder for cities to address rampant speeding and bad driving.

We hear all the time about how we shouldn’t defund the police.

Well, we shouldn’t defang their tools, either.

Iowa delegation saves some biofuel credits; places economy at risk

As expected, Iowa’s congressional delegation voted for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling bill Wednesday, and it barely survived, 217-215.

As I noted the other day, the House plan, if it ever were to be enacted, would do little to improve our government’s fiscal health. The federal debt would still rise to 106% of Gross Domestic Product over the next decade under the GOP plan. Which is little different than the 110% President Biden proposes.

Twenty years ago, debt-to-GDP was about 35%.

President Biden and Senate Democrats adamantly oppose the bill, so now the standoff really begins.

Meanwhile, Iowa’s delegation was winning high praise in some quarters Wednesday for holding out until McCarthy caved during the wee hours and amended the House bill to reverse cuts to certain biofuel tax credits. Otherwise, they reportedly weren’t going to vote for the plan.

Given McCarthy’s slim majority, this was entirely predictable. He didn’t have any choice but to give in.

Nonetheless, the Iowa four were playing it to the hilt Wednesday, calling it a major victory. They even claimed that “the biofuels industry drives the Iowa economy.”

This might surprise even the industry’s boldest supporters. Earlier this year, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association issued a report claiming the industry contributed $7.2 billion to the state’s GDP in 2022.

Critics say the ethanol lobby typically overstates its economic impact in Iowa. But even if taken at face value, that’s still just 3% of Iowa’s $230 billion GDP.

That’s some driver.

But while Reps. Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra were reaping praise from fellow Republicans Chuck Grassley and Kim Reynolds for standing up for tax credits important to the biofuels industry and farmers, they didn’t stand up for the thousands of Iowans at risk of losing Medicaid coverage if the Republican plan goes through.

Nor did they stand up for the millions of poor children and those with disabilities who are educated in schools that would see funding cuts nationwide.

They didn’t even stand up for the “thousands of farm families” in Iowa and other states that the USDA predicts will lose “access to the credit and help they need to continue to farm” if the GOP’s plan goes through. (Since Republicans will likely exempt the Defense Department from these cuts, the White House said they will fall especially hard on domestic programs.)

Most importantly, the Iowa four voted to bring us closer to a disastrous default on our national debt.

That’s the biggest risk Iowans face, not the loss of biofuel credits.

Already, the markets are getting shaky as this fight over the debt ceiling drags out.

Axios reported Wednesday that bond traders were showing “extraordinary nervousness.” And even the Iowa four acknowledge that what’s at stake here is a “catastrophic default,” although they blame Biden instead of themselves.

Republicans and Democrats need to seriously work together to get our debt under control. And there are balanced alternatives that don’t involve taking us to the economic brink.

Republicans didn’t demand President Trump cut spending before raising the debt limit when he was in the White House.

But now they're sticking it to Biden.

Now, they suddenly care about our nation’s fiscal health. At least they do until the next deficit-raising tax cut plan comes along.

It’s wrong to hold the country’s economy hostage to win political battles. Even fiscal hawks have acknowledged this.

But, hey, the Iowa four stood up for biofuels this week. That will be good for some positive Iowa press and future campaign donations.

The problem is, they’re putting all Iowans at tremendous economic risk in the process.

A word before you go

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Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing to their work.

Laura Belin, Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen, Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias, Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up

Pat Kinney, View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Kyle Munson: Kyle’s Main Street, Iowa

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton, My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices

Cheryl Tevis, Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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