I see more [speeding] tickets from Cedar Rapids than I see from all other cities combined. - Minnesota resident
According to Adam Belz, Iowa native and business reporter at the Star Tribune in Minnesota, Cedar Rapids has become the ultimate speed trap in the Midwest.
"I got a ticket a little bit over a month ago. I was looking at it, and I thought, 'I wonder if Cedar Rapids is getting known for this?'" says Belz, who then asked via Twitter if others experienced the same. "One of my friends who is in charge of a sales force fleet immediately tweeted me, 'I see more tickets from Cedar Rapids than I see from all other cities combined.'"
On this River to River segment, host Ben Kieffer talks with Belz about the controversial stretch of Interstate 380 that snakes through Cedar Rapids.
Nearly 90 percent of the tickets issued in a year by the city's network of traffic enforcement cameras come from cameras set up on Interstate 380 at J Avenue NE. The state requested that the city’s speed cameras be removed and moved, which Cedar Rapids appealed. The Iowa Department of Transportation is scheduled to answer the appeal by May 16.
Also joining the conversation, Steve Gent of the Iowa DOT and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett.
