Results tagged “safety” from DesMoinesIst

The City of Des Moines is considering adding red-light cameras to intersections and Interstate 235 off-ramps. Clive already has them in six locations, so the horse is already out of the barn around here, in a sense. But that doesn't mean Des Moines should roll over and follow suit. Red-light cameras are not only creepy symptoms of a surveillance state, they're not even especially good at reducing collisions (in fact, they tend to increase rear-end collisions). If you want safer roads, you have engineers design them to be safer -- and you don't complain when those designs seem strange or unusual. Roundabouts, for instance, are remarkably safe: They've been measured to reduce injury crashes by 50% to 75%. But Americans aren't used to them, and that's gotten in the way of their widespread acceptance. Red-light cameras, though, are intrusive and more than a little Big Brother-ish. A civilized society relies on accommodation and judgment, not always-on surveillance. As it's been put elsewhere, if a police officer follows you for 500 miles, you're going to get a ticket. Red-light cameras are like that ultra-persistent cop: They don't blink. That's because red-light cameras aren't really about traffic safety: They're about revenue generation.

A Minneapolitan (because that's what we should take to calling people from the Twin Cities) named Jen Scott ought to get a free pass to the Iowa State Fair or some other state honorific for sharing these words about Des Moines:

Stopped by the most ghetto QT in Des Moines, to find it sparkly clean and filled with cops.

Based on the rest of her narrative, she was undoubtedly referring to the QuikTrip on Grand Avenue near Iowa Methodist, which isn't really in the highest-crime portion of town, but definitely wouldn't show up on a local real estate tour. And she's right: The place is always clean and there are always police nearby. We should thank Jen for noticing how we do things in the Des Moines area.