This is a four lane divided highway in a very rural area. Thinking that I was outside of the “city”, I had resumed a normal driving speed on a downhill area before a bridge that crosses a creek. There was another car beside me on the left, had TN plates (not sure if they were local), so I did not see the cop until he had done a u-turn from the opposite direction to come up behind me. The cop actually stopped me outside the city limits–perfectly legal though since he caught me at “the line”. But he stopped me within seeing distance (50 yds.) of a 55 mph sign. He clocked me, on the downhill, doing 57, although when I looked at the gauge, it showed 55.

Their was no “safety” issue as the cop mentioned, since the area had no cross roads and only a couple (and I do mean couple) of driveways to houses within a mile span of that roadway. He also marked that I was in a “residential” area, right above the rural area checkbox.

Since I was taking a scenic route home from a short vacation, I had to pay a $180 toll for the trip — $50 for fine, $130 (not including transaction fee) for their paperwork processing even if paying online and not going to court. I found an article online that stated in the month of March, 2016, that the city of 1500 residents and 2 sq. miles had 400 traffic stops, with only one of the citations issued to a city resident, resulting in almost 30 thousand in revenue for the city. So it is clear that this city does not want tourists to pass through, but if you do they will be happy to make money off of you.

Since the State of Tennessee is complicit with this scam by allowing the city to set unreasonable speed limits in an area that should not be within a city’s bounds, I decided to punish the state as a whole. I had pending sales that were being shipped to me from a gallery and so I cancelled all the orders. I also decided to cancel a planned trip close to Christmas. The town might have made money off of me, but the net effect was a loss for TN.

I will not go back through TN this way, or at all. And I can take my business and vacations elsewhere. I feel sorry for those who can’t. If you have to travel through the area, use I-75.