The City of Sumner, Iowa will be considering putting in traffic cameras in town. There are many people including myself, Adam Schultz, who are against traffic cameras for our town. This petition will be given to the city counsel in Sumner for their consideration. By signing this petition, you are essentially telling the city counsel that you are against having traffic cameras in town for one or more of the following reasons:

There is little evidence that traffic cameras in small towns actually make the town safer, considering actual vehicular accident reports.

When considering speeding in small towns, there is evidence that the speed monitoring devices that show the drivers speed in real time (much like the ones at the east and west ends of town currently, February 2024) do just as much if not more in slowing down traffic.

30%-50% of the money generated from traffic cameras DON'T EVEN STAY IN SAID TOWN. They go to the traffic cameral company, many of which are out of state. That means more of our hard earned money going out of state.

The main reason why the vast majority of towns put in traffic cameras have very little to do with safety and have a lot more to do with bringing in the money they generate; this is concerning.

I believe one of the main reasons why they are being considered for Sumner is simply to bring in more money for the city budget as, like most governments, local or otherwise, have "needs" and "desires" to spend more money on things than what they have in the current budget. Although there are important things that need funded, I believe bringing in traffic cameras to fund whatever needs funded is highly immoral and there are more ethical ways to fund things besides coercion through traffic tickets.

Many of the people who end of getting these tickets are the citizens of that town, or that frequent that town; meaning that our own citizens and regular visitors are going to be the ones who are regularly ticketed.

Many times, cameras are strategically placed just after a speed limit change, i.e. from 55 to 45 or from 35 to 25. Say a motorist was going 49 in a 45 (4 over) and started slowing down just as they went into the 35 limit area. If they were clocked just past this spot going 46 in the 35, this would generate a ticket that could cost anywhere from $50-$100, even if within just 50-100 feet they had slowed down to the correct speed. I believe this to be immoral.

There is already a proposed bill in the Iowa State Legislature that would make ALL traffic camera tickets ILLEGAL for many of the reasons I am stating, plus more.

Sumner is on HWY 93, a stretch of Highway that is relatively short, running only from Fayette to Tripoli. If out of town people, who we are somewhat dependent on for commerce and business, especially on 1st Street (Think all the businesses downtown: Sunset Theatre, Fueled by Faith, Cones and Cups, Spellbound, 10 Wasp Brewery, Makers Market, Restored, J&C Grocery, Sumner Christmas lights - just to name a few). If people start to get tickets and get frustrated with the town of Sumner for it, they will just bypass going through town, and take one of the county roads or state highways north of south of town. This would simply by bad for Sumner businesses.

If you agree with any one of these reasons why traffic cameras would be bad for Sumner or if you are just generally against traffic cameras in the town of Sumner, Iowa, please provide your e-signature.

Sumner City Counsel has the authority to decide if Sumner will have traffic cameras or not. This petition will be given to them for their consideration, largely telling them that there are many people who DO NOT want traffic cameras in town.

THANK YOU!