NewbE is exactly right.

The speed-limit signs in such places often require beginning to slow down long before you see them, because they come up quickly with drastic reductions, are placed around curves, or with other strategies for making it almost impossible to comply unless you're already traveling at well below the previous speed limit.

Have been through Waldo several times, and this is unquestionably their major source of revenue. It's a matter of harvest rather than damage-prevention. There is ALWAYS a couple of cars pulled over, and if we haven't been it's because our GPS now shows exactly where, relative to Waldo's limits, we are. For them 2 MPH over the limit is ticketable, and the prices are high. They count on out-of-staters not going to the trouble of litigating and, of course, the local magistrate isn't going to dial it down to a warning.

The other thing to remember is that state police camp out at state lines, sometimes in multi-clusters. My sister got caught in SC (another notorious passage on 95) - yes, she was 10 miles over, but at same speed as all the other traffic coming from GA -- and she was the first of 5 cars all motioned to the side at roughly the same time.

"And they really aren't so long that driving a few miles at 35 or whatever really makes much difference in the grand scheme of things."

I agree.
I love watching a speed demon blast by on a 4 lane limited access highway - the kind that crisscross GA and FL. Every 10 miles or so there's a stop light - and quite often I find them waiting at the stop light...and we start off together again.

My dad used to grumble and say that I drive like "an old woman". I'd laugh in response and recently I started responding "I AM an old woman". But the more he rode with me as the primary driver, the more he appreciated the steady in the middle lane approach. He always drove like a fighter pilot and his reflexes were still great. But it's not a race and I don't like to waste money on speeding tickets.

"...and this is unquestionably their major source of revenue."
Same for the tiny town in the mountains. My response would be..."So?". It's a tiny town with kids and folks on bikes and as Neo said, slowing down for that mile or so isn't going to make a big difference in the entire drive.

I love when newbies will register on TripAdvisor to complain about a "speed trap" on I 75 going through Georgia. Just like small towns, you're not going to get a speeding ticket if you aren't speeding. Also not if you are in the middle lane, going with the flow of traffic.


"...she was 10 miles over, but at same speed as all the other traffic coming from GA -- and she was the first of 5 cars all motioned to the side at roughly the same time."
At least they didn't single one car out.

starrs: >>vin, I still contend that if you are not speeding, you're not going to get a speeding ticket.<<

I agree, but that doesn't justify selective enforcement (if, in fact, it exists). If I and everyone else are doing 35 in a 30 mph zone, and only I get targeted and stopped, is that not a miscarriage of justice?

Waldo's police department was disbanded last year or so. The town is tiny, though. Just go 30 and you'll be through town in no time.

Damn. I was so looking forward to driving through the town one day, at the speed limit, and giving the cops the finger.

"If I and everyone else are doing 35 in a 30 mph zone, and only I get targeted and stopped, is that not a miscarriage of justice?"

Justice has nothing to do with it. You were all breaking the law, but you were unlucky as well.

It happens.

If you had been driving below the speed limit and were given a ticket by a cop with wonky or "adjusted" radar, that would have been unjust.

Having said that, my father once got a ticket in Indiana for going too slowly. He was driving along a two lane US highway at 40mph admiring the corn and didn't notice the long backup behind him. He got a ticket for obstructing traffic.

When I was a kid, I got caught in a speed trap. I am not sure how they caught me at 100.

Ack, a teacher friend got the same kind of ticket for going too slowly on Atlanta's downtown connector (75/85). ;)

Yes, there are minimum speed limits on interstates as well. :-)

Ack: >>Justice has nothing to do with it. You were all breaking the law, but you were unlucky as well.<<

My scenario didn't involve luck or chance. It's a deliberate attempt by police to apply the law unfairly. (Not that it's the same thing, but you do know that there riots in some cities where cops selectively enforce laws against blacks, right?)

Maybe you mean I'd be unlucky to have encountered a crooked cop?

Fodorgarchs never encounter cops because they never, ever do anything wrong, nor does anything unlucky happen to them because they plan for every eventuality and are perfectly informed and aware of everything at all times everywhere.

The End

Vincenzo: "I was so looking forward to driving through the town one day, at the speed limit, and giving the cops the finger." Even if Waldo is neutralized, there are other towns along that stretch, and there's always the state-border harvest, even on non-interstates. Giving cops the finger, however, might not be advisable for other, non-auto related reasons.

NewbE - on the nose, except me - I do everything wrong fairly frequently.