No, it is not a speed trap. It is a complicated road condition that brain-dead drivers can't negotiate. It requires steering and braking at the same time, for almost a mile.

There are no "city police," Tonopah is a town with no law other than the Nye County Sheriff. There are four Esmeralda County (Goldfield) deputies who live in the wrong county and also run speed traps, they are out of their jurisdiction but few bother to fight that. Be aware that Tonopah is one of the best sources of revenue for the state. yes, we locals prefer that you don't speed, we have lots of dumb kids here who's parents don't bother teaching them basic safety before sending them off on bikes, trikes and scooters. However, the NHP stops anyone for any reason and will not hesitate to lie through their teeth. No seat belt is not a primary infraction, so they have to lie about speed, stop signs or signals in order to catch you without one on, the basic fine is only $28, then the state adds another forty bucks or so. However, if you take the time to came back and see Judge Maslach, you stand a chance of winning as he's fed up with their antics. Nevada needs to abolish the highway patrol/state police, they are nothing more than armed extortionists!

The Esmeralda County cops who give tickets in Tonopah are in their jurisdiction. The county line runs through town. In fact you have to drive into Esmeralda County to get to the Nye County courthouse from the main part of town. Going out of town to the north, the speed trap is in Esmeralda County and a great revenue enhancer for them. The town of Tonopah gets nothing out of it, and those of us who have businesses in Tonopah do not appreciate the harrassment of the tourists.

I was caught in the speed trap coming into Tonopah from Las Vegas. The sheriff was sitting at the bottom of the hill coming in and catching everyone in the 45-35-25 mile limit where you can hardly put your brake on fast enough because the speed zone changes so rapidly. I tried to fight the ticket, and wrote a letter complaining about the trap to the paper. My letter was never printed according to the people who live there. They were watching for it. They even told me about the Sheriff having an accident on his way to Goldfield going at 95 miles per hour and losing control of his car. He was using a police car when he was off duty.. So that is how things are in the Goldfield/Tonopah area.

WOW! WAAAAAAHHHHHHH! The zones are clearly marked and anyone wish to can easily reach and maintain the legal speed limit. They do watch, but the target is violators in general and it may seem that "out of state drivers" are targeted, but it is because the locals KNOW BETTER. Pay attention. the life you save may be your own

Enough with your excuses Johnny Law for your past predatory ticket writing.

The simple solution is to slow down as you are approaching town and shift into 2nd gear as you go down the hill. When I drive through Tonopah, I usually have to get gas at the station, so I'm slowing down anyway...

Got to love small towns in the middle of nowhere. South end caught me after stopping for gas--after most of the signs. The road is wide with some sidewalks and in most cities an experienced driver would naturally drive 45. If you are a local, you are used to it so perhaps they don't target of out of state drivers on purpose. I plan on avoiding this road in the future and spend my gas and snack money in California. Write the Nevada DOT and encourage them to do a speed study. From my research so far a speed study has not been done on that hunk of road for a very long time. Such a study might raise the speed limit.

Definitely a speed trap. As the last post stated, this is a four lane road through town, most four lane roads through small towns are 35-40. The rule of thumb is 10mph per lane, hence 40, barring any signs to the contrary. I will be making my donation to the County soon, they need that revenue no doubt. I had never been through Tonopah and had arrived about mid-day, fueled up at the Rebel station after coming in from Hwy 6. I then turned back South to find something to eat. I was kind of excited about the quaintness of the town the historical look and interesting buildings, obviously I was admiring all of that a bit too much and missed the 25 mph signs. Now I will say there are several signs and the officers know exactly how many and where they are. The young officer I met was upset that I missed those signs and his attitude clearly reflected that, as well as having a bit of escalatory tone to his end of the conversation. This person I believe maybe shouldn’t be in law enforcement, there is no place in law enforcement for acting unprofessionally or otherwise conducting oneself in a way that could escalate easily into a potentially much more complicated situation. Just my opinion. I chose to de-escalate and simply answer questions in a way that was honest and also not “taking the bait” for escalation/confrontation. Anyway, my assumption was probably about 35-40 was the speed limit, I saw a sign for 25 and immediately slowed down, but it must have been after the officer had clocked me. He was coming the other way in a moving vehicle with a partner. I assume he was all calibrated with his radar and driving at a set speed, etc, doing everything right. He claimed I was doing over 40. I am doubtful but I didn’t argue. He kept asking/stating sarcastically that I didn’t see the signs as I was driving the short distance through town before he stopped me. As if any normal person would see those signs and then defiantly punch it through town anyway. I’m not like that, I’m actually a pretty safe driver. I’ve had maybe two other tickets in almost 30 years and hundreds of thousands of miles. So anyway, my two bits is that this is definitely a speed trap. The fact that a road typically and commonly found almost everywhere else at 35-40 mph is set at 25 (not just in the presence of children, but all the time) is probably a testament to that. I was going to eat there but after getting the ticket I had lost my appetite for lunch as well as the town. I don’t think I’ll be back, and 10 minutes before that I was just telling my family in the car that it seemed like a nice little town and that I’d like to check it out more someday. I understand that we can’t have people speeding in areas where it is a danger, but the reality here is that 25 is very likely too slow for that road and the circumstances there. It’s a commercial area not a neighborhood, it’s four lanes, visibility is good, 35-40 would be reasonable in those conditions. Plus, the bottom line for me is; I don’t want to live around police like that. As the officer stated, “they have nothing better to do than to pull people over and hand out tickets”. This tells me, either there’s too many police on the payroll there (two in the car that stopped me), or there’s a pressure on them to drive revenue through ticketing (mostly out of town/State, such as myself) people. If they have nothing better to do, then perhaps they need less officers on staff. Too much government, police state, and all of that. If I was speeding, I deserve a ticket, I’m not arguing that. But, I will argue that the speed limit is not realistic and does not match the parameters of similar roads in other towns, so therefore tickets are given out more often than they should be. I don’t know if these guys give out many warnings, maybe more so to the locals, but I’m guessing they know out of towners 99 times out of a hundred just pay the fine and it’s easy revenue for the County. Thanks for the opportunity to vent a bit and everyone be aware that Tonopah is not the place to be unaware of the unrealistic requirements they have through town because they have officers “sitting around with nothing better to do”. I think they have at least a car or two there set up as a specialty unit with two officers as a team actively targeting people and issuing speeding tickets. It’s a lot of money; they can easily generate several thousand dollars a day in ticket revenue. If it’s not a safety issue and I don’t really believe it is based on the road and similar circumstances elsewhere, then it’s about the money. Let’s call it what it is. They need that revenue perhaps and I get that, but I wish we weren’t going about getting it this way as much as it’s probably happening there.