Since the Cedar Rapids traffic cameras were reactivated on July 1, they've issued what averages to almost 17 speeding tickets per hour. You think maybe we have a speeding problem? I've long been an advocate for the cameras and that number is exactly why. Obey the law and you've got nothing to worry about. As someone who drives I-380 into downtown Cedar Rapids every day, I truly believe those cameras make the interstate safer. People driving at a slower, safer speed tends to do that.

The City of Cedar Rapids and all of us in the media have well-publicized the fact you can drive 66-miles-per-hour past an I-380 traffic camera and not get ticketed. Go 12 over, 67 MPH, and you will. Yet, in the 60 days from July 1 to August 29, 24,387 tickets were issued by the cameras on I-380! That's 406 per day. Nearly 17 per hour. Clearly not everyone's gotten the message but are we supposed to feel sorry for them? Nope. Like I said, obey the law and you've got nothing to worry about.

The monetary numbers of those tickets are massive. Calculate the tickets, 406 per day at $75 each and that's $30,450 each day. The Cedar Rapids Police Department collects just over 73 percent of the fine from each ticket, or $55. That's $22,330 daily that's going to the CRPD. If the offenders keep up their pace of speeding, that's $8,150,450 the city of Cedar Rapids would collect from the I-380 cameras over a year. That assumes people keep speeding at this rate (let's hope they don't) and that all the tickets are paid.

Cedar Rapids also has a white, Chevy Malibu with a mobile speed camera inside that it parks around the city. It has issued another 224 tickets in the last 60 days.

That same time frame also saw 298 people ticketed for running red lights in Cedar Rapids. I think it's safe to say we won't be seeing Cedar Rapids on the list of cities with the best drivers anytime soon.

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