It’s Time to Ramp Up Traffic Law Enforcement
Sioux Falls has a chronic speeding problem, and it’s a deadly menace. From noisy downtown drag races to high-speed crashes on arterial roads like 57th Street, reckless driving is putting lives at risk across the city. Tragic collisions in recent years, some involving speeds exceeding 100 mph, have shaken the community. Yet meaningful solutions remain elusive.
The root problem is twofold: dangerous driver behavior and limited enforcement capacity. Our police department is stretched thin, and traffic enforcement understandably competes with many other public safety priorities. But this lack of consistent enforcement enables a culture of impunity. The result is a cavalier attitude toward traffic rules leading to more crashes, more injuries and more grieving families. Late night revving engines and squealing tires are a common occurrence throughout the city.
Sioux Falls has reasonable traffic rules in place. But it doesn’t have the resources to enforce them. The city is far from alone in facing these challenges. Many cities are responding with smart, modern solutions that make enforcement more effective without requiring more officers on patrol.
The Role of Automated Traffic Enforcement
Nineteen states have authorized the use of speed cameras to enforce traffic laws. These systems are commonly deployed in school zones, construction areas, and high-crash corridors, the kinds of locations where Sioux Falls sees its worst problems.
Here’s how it works: speed cameras use radar or lidar to detect violations. When a vehicle exceeds the limit by a defined threshold, the system captures a photo of the car and its license plate. The registered owner receives a citation in the mail. Typically, these are civil penalties rather than criminal offenses.
Critics argue that speed cameras prioritize revenue over safety and eliminate due process by removing a human officer from the interaction. But those concerns, while not unfounded, are outweighed by the evidence. Numerous studies show that automated enforcement reduces speeding, improves compliance, and prevents crashes, particularly in high-risk areas. In short, the cameras work.
They also free up law enforcement to focus on violent crime, drug offenses and community policing. That’s no small benefit in a growing city like Sioux Falls, where resources are already stretched.
Lessons From Other Cities
Iowa has long been at the forefront of automated traffic enforcement. Multiple mid-sized cities use speed cameras extensively, with fines escalating up to $500 for higher speeds. Cities with populations under 20,000 are excluded from the program, but larger communities have embraced the technology as a life-saving tool.
Now, Minneapolis is preparing to install its own network of speed cameras. Officials there cite a troubling statistic: 80% of traffic fatalities involve speeding. Cameras in Minneapolis will target vehicles traveling at least 10 mph over the limit, with fines starting at $40.
Sioux Falls would do well to begin laying the groundwork to follow suit.
A Record of Tragedy
We don’t need a theoretical argument to justify better enforcement. The cost of inaction is already visible in the tragedies we’ve witnessed.
A couple of years ago, a speeding SUV carrying seven juveniles lost control and slammed into a tree and a house. Two young people died at the scene, and five others were hospitalized with serious injuries. Investigators cited both speed and lack of seatbelt use.
In another case, a vehicle racing through east Sioux Falls at 100 mph blew through a red light and collided with a car carrying young people returning from work. Two were killed instantly and two more were seriously injured. Police said the speeding driver bore full responsibility.
Street racing has also turned deadly. A 35-year-old motorcyclist died in a high-speed race on Sycamore Avenue. And earlier this year, another motorcyclist lost his life on East 57th Street after crashing into a pole while speeding.
These crashes aren’t mere statistics. They are devastating, avoidable events that have left lasting scars on families and neighborhoods.
Next Steps
With summer here and schools out, the season of high-risk driving is upon us. Downtown residents and those living along 57th Street and other high-speed corridors will soon be calling in noise and safety complaints. Tragedy will follow. But we can’t keep responding with thoughts and prayers alone. It’s time for proactive solutions.
To begin with, Sioux Falls must make traffic safety enforcement a legislative priority. While current South Dakota law does not allow automated traffic enforcement, that can change. City leaders should work with local legislators to seek enabling legislation in Pierre.
Public safety isn’t just about reacting to crime; it’s about preventing it. And when it comes to speeding, prevention starts with deterrence. That means being visible, consistent, and modern in our enforcement tools. Let’s seize that opportunity before more lives are lost.
Only people who are weak and soft think this is a top issue for Sioux Falls. And the core issue related to speeding is the youth in Sioux falls need more responsible parenting, and more police engagement with area youth around driving risks and responsibilities. Police are also not ticketing or policing roads as much as they should be, I see people speeding down roads past cops and they do nothing.
Our roads are in such bad shape, it’s a surprise any vehicles are able to go very fast in the first place.
Infrastructure issues, master planning for future growth, better focus on economic development, drugs, assaults on police, downtown safety and business environment, and stronger mayor and city leadership are all far more important issues. People are more likely to speed because they’ve been caught in traffic. Why is there traffic? Lack of infrastructure and planning by streets and engineering. Take the Cliff closure for example – sending 12,000+ vehicles to the already-congested Minnesota ave and other main (and very few) arteries within the city.
Will have to take a much deeper look into the causes for speeding and driving styles versus the driving itself before saying it’s a top issue. I agree with you that proactive measures need to take place. But no one was talking about speeding until the Mayor (who copies what other city mayors do when it comes to initiatives) started posting about it on his social channels that he thinks it’s a problem he doesn’t like. We have no unique initiatives here, they’re copy+paste from other cities and mayors. And there is an absolute distinction here between drivers of cars and motorcyclists. Motorcycles are the main issue if we are talking about dangerous activities on the roads, not cars. And anyone can try to prove me wrong on that – just drive around on a summer Friday night and tell me if you saw every motorcyclist driving the speed limit or not trying to cause issues.
Cameras will certainly increase revenue to the City. Cameras will not stop any loss of life as in the examples listed here. Just as gun laws don’t influence criminals cameras won’t stop street racing exhibition driving. Once camera locations are discovered the crimes will just be moved to a non monitored location.
Nice article, Joe. I have written to the mayor and police with some results. I live on 57th and the young man who wrapped himself around a light pole was at our corner. Thankfully, we were out of town. I think the speeders need to understand two things, first speed will kill, and second, if caught you lose your bike or car. Anyone going over the limit by 50 mph, should lose their ride and the fine should be at least $1000. Maybe we could pay for more traffic officers that way?
Major intersections have become a war zone. Yellow lights mean nothing, and the first few seconds of red are treated as a suggestion to speed through before anyone with a green light dares to enter the intersection. Cameras at major intersections would be a great help, as would the occasional motorcycle cop.
I agree with quite a bit the above commenters mention. I, too, see speeders and red light runners committing the crime right in front of oncoming officers and nothing is done. Moreover, there should never be 5 or more police cruisers eating at Bagel Boy at the same time. They can’t stagger breaks and lunches?
Announcing when and where saturation patrols are planning to be held is the antithesis of common sense. Same with telling drivers when DUI checkpoints are going to be held.
And I agree with the commenter, who said that many policies are cut and pasted from other cities by this mayor. This guy has never had an original thought. I say this as someone who unfortunately voted for Mr. TenHaken.
While I disagree with you on camera enforcement (the city already lost a SD Supreme court case on this, and we can’t go back) I do agree the traffic in SF is awful. I have been commuting on my E-bike almost every day, all year for about 5 years. I have a very different perspective while riding. Besides people just generally being bad drivers (mostly because they are playing with their anxiety devices) the traffic light detection and set-up is absolutely horrible, and 10x worse for a bicyclist or a ped. Also the roads are built like race tracks. Just drive down Sycamore or Bahnson, you could run Formula on these streets. Change the designs of our streets and you fix the problem, ALSO, start handing out citations for cellphone use in vehicles. When I am on my bike at a stoplight and I look over at drivers, almost 50% are on their phones or talking to someone on their phones.
Joe, you have identified the problem. However, I would submit that you cannot enforce your way out of bad road design. The problem goes back to how we build our streets. The police cannot possibly be everywhere or enforce our way out of bad design. I will quote from NACTO (National Assocation Of City Transportation Officals):
“Speed plays a critical role in crashes and the severity of their outcomes. Traditional street design was grounded in highway design principles that forgive driver error and accommodate higher speeds. This approach based the design speed and posted speed limit on 85th-percentile speeds—how fast drivers are actually driving rather than how fast drivers ought to drive. By designing for a faster set of drivers, crashes increase and drivers actually traveling the speed limit are put at risk. This passive use of design speed accommodates, and indirectly encourages, speeding by designing streets that account for the worst set of drivers and highest potential risks. Higher design speeds, moreover, degrade city streets and walkable neighborhoods by mandating larger curb radii, wider travel lanes, guardrails, streets with no on-street parking, and generous clear zones.”
In short, we build our streets with “forgiving” designs, straight, wide, no impediments in an effort to protect drivers from themselves. People will drive the speed the street is designed for and what feels safe. You can put up 30 mph signs as much as you want, but if the road has wide lanes, runs straight for a mile, has few obstacles on either side, and has gentle curves, you’re going to have speeding. Forgiving design, wide lanes, and gentle curves belong on interstates and high speed state highways. They don’t belong on city streets. That’s the problem. Traffic engineers know (or should) know this. When I was a City Councilor, I received complaints about speeding on the same roadways, and when you looked at them the reasons were obvious. All of the designs mentioned above. They invite and encourage speeding. It ironically creates more severe high speed crashes, but it puts pedestrians and bicyclists at risk, and discourages walking/biking because cars are going so fast that it doesn’t feel safe to be near them.
As long as we build our streets with “forgiving design” and prioritize getting people from A to B as fast as possible, the carnage and speeding will continue. Streets must be built to prioritize all modes including pedestrians and the uses on either side of them, not for cars going as fast as possible through them. When you see a street with gentle turns, wide lanes, little impediments in the boulevards and median, you can bet speeding is pervasive. It’s a design feature. Road design has to change, period. And that has to be demanded from the public, and then from responsive elected officials (the Mayor most notably) and in turn public works engineers and the firms that design our streets. They have to be redesigned, and changed systematically as they are reconstructed. That’s the only way out of this problem.
Spot on Joe. Thank you for your clear thinking and willingness to share your insight.
A big problem is exhibition driving. It’s tiny cars with holes in the muffler that sound loud but barely squeal tires. For some reason children as old as 35 must accelerate between stop lights. Weekends are the loop of old (12th-Phillips-10th-Grange). One police car properly posted can disrupt this. Instead of speeding tickets, issue demonstration and open container tickets. The children will be stuck at home because parents can’t afford car insurance.
The city charter is some of the problem. There’s no due process and case dismissed. The city attorney is afraid of private law firms because he’s never tried a case. Cameras are not a witness. The city cannot mail a ticket and expect it paid because it was not served in person.