Muscatine

Does anybody out there believe that the new cameras are anything more than a civic fund-raiser.  The arguement that they are for "safety"  seems a bit far fetched.  Consider that if you're driving west on the bypass, and try to turn left onto Mulberry, there isn't a left-turn arrow, and if there is a truck in the east bound turn lane, your vision of oncoming traffic is totally obstructed.  Once on Mulberry going into town, notice that there are no sidewalks and very little, if any shoulder.  In the past week I personally observed two very dangerous situations...a bicyclist pulling a child carrier going past the care center, traffic screeching to a halt from both directions to avoid hitting her.  The same day, a motorized wheelchair (!) on the same stretch of road with the same result.  Granted, both the bicyclist and the chair driver should have had the sense to not try and negotiate this section of road, but if the city is truly in the "saftey" business, a left turn arrow and a couple of hundred feet of sidewalk might go a long way toward fixing this particular problem. 

Wednesday rant complete.  Looks like a beautiful, non-stinky day here in God's country.

As long it's pet-peeve day, mine is still drivers on cell phones.  Coming out of Hy-Vee the other day and saw a woman west bound on the bypass turn left into Hy-Vee, right in the path of an east bound car.  Poor guy in the east bound had to swerve and ended up straddling the median on the other side.  I'm not sure the woman ever looked away from her cell phone and probably didn't even know how close she came to death. 

Your second sentence is the word! Word! Coderoni used accident safety to sell this program; but could never have any stats together when asked during council meetings about accident trends. Then after the first period of using cameras, I believe it was the first month, the Journal quoted the PD on their "violations" and what revenue that would have generated had the fines been in place.

Subsequent reports made reference to the revenues gained after mailing citations for another period.

But not once was there any mention of comparisons of how accidents had been reduced at those locations compared to the stats they have from the past for those locations, and how much "safer" those intersections are.

I do not believe in the camera scheme, especially when a third-party (for profit) company is involved. They are not our sworn officers and never have been sworn to uphold anything.

As for the location you speak of....that whole stretch of Mullberry is a scare. I am reminded when a prominent elevator business owner burned to death there after a collison in his grain truck, after he could not get out of the truck. If a wreck is imminent, you have no where to go but into a deep ditch with obvious roll-over steep slopes.

Here my gripe,  joggers who can't use the sidewalk.  We had to pay big $$ for a sidewalk in front of our house.  We couldn't do the work,Oh no, had to pay to have it done.  We keep it clear of snow during the winter, but here are the joggers running in the road and not along the side of the road, down the road.  Some morning in the dark and fog one of them will get hit and then whose fault will it be?  The poor driver of the car. 

OK I'm done now.