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There was a stretch of road on the Jersey Shore from Avalon to Wildwood that had such a ridiculously slow speed limit and was such a notorious speed trap that the hotels would give you placards to hang off your rearview mirror reminding you of it.
That was about 20 years ago, not sure what it is like now.
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was just coming here to post this.
So the âlost the records in the swampsâ was total BS?
Drunk person driving into the water/mud certainly sounds plausible.
However, to get that really dark, âSpanish Moss everywhereâ kind of feeling in Swamp Thing, the central and west coast â near and in the armpit of Florida â is usually the best territory. Homossassa is the best because of all the tiny little inlets that force you to drive several miles to a place that could be reached in one mile as the crow flies.
I use this in comparison to somewhere like Levy county, which in my opinion, is more like itâs own scorched-earth kind of hell, albeit dotted with some great waterholes.
OTOH of course there was the wedding industry in Georgia ⌠one of my high school teachers drove one of my fellow students to Waycross in about 1962 and married her. Sheâd have been underage in FL at the time.
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Before the days of freeways, there was a similar situation at the crossroads of three major US highways in Ludowici, Georgia, on the main drag from the north into Florida. The AAA labeled it the most notorious speed trap in the country. The speed limit changed multiple times, seemingly at random, on the roads going into town. Many of those signs were hidden by vegetation or fence posts.
At the highway intersection there hung the most notorious traffic light (specifically called out by AAA and Time magazine). It was capable of changing instantly from green to red without passing through yellow. Locals had a short cut constructed for them to avoid the light so it only fleeced out of towners.
The town was also filled with crooked gambling joints and even more crooked gas stations. Theyâd pour water in the crankcase or some such thing and then send you down the road to get it fixed (at, and Iâm not making this up, Billy Swindelâs garage).
It was quite an operation. The police were so corrupt that in 1963 governor Carl Sanders deprived them of the power to make arrests. Apparently, they worked on commission.
Lester Maddox had a lot of faults, but after defying three governors in succession, Maddox finally figured out how to deal with them. He posted billboards on the roads into town:
and, as you can see, posted a State Patrol guard on them 24/7 to prevent locals from tearing them down. A few years later, I-95 turned them into just another jerkwater town.
Next time BoingBoing gives me an opening, Iâll tell the story of the Three Governors controversy. Georgia once gave Florida a run for its money for crazy. It is the most baroque episode ever in Southern politics (at least, not involving Earl Long).
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Reminds me of Mackâs Creek again. Some of the people who owned property outside the town got so tired of its reputation that they put up signs outside of town with their own money warning about it.
Whatâs good for the gerrygoose is good for the gerrymander.
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I remember being specifically told to avoid this stretch of highway when I was in Florida, or at least pay VERY close attention when I got near, and slow way down for several miles.
Hey! 
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I wonder if thatâs where we got pulled over driving to Kansas City to a Primus concert. The cop had us at gunpoint the whole time while lecturing us on unsafe driving speeds, then threw our driver in jail.
In 2012, voters approved dissolving the town with 69% in favor of the motion; above the required amount of 60%.
Hah! I wonder if she knows â itâd probably make her day to hear that.
Edit:
I had to get confirmation on the nameâŚalmost exactly the same thing happened (speed trap town pulls over State legislator, gets ass handed to them) in Gilmore, AR, a little town on the road to Memphis. Theyâre apparently not dissolved, but as my mother suggests, it would be impossible for them to dissolve further.
One thing I learned driving in North Carolina is that a number of towns paint the patrol car used for speed traps a matte black, including the chrome, so you really cannot see them from dusk to dawn, even when youâre within a few feet of them.
There may be a British angle here in the use of the word âwangâ. âHamptonâ is London rhyming slang for penis (Hampton wick = âŚwork it out for yourself.)
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