The speed limit is not 50 mph it is 55 mph once you cross into Early County. Signs are posted to reflect this so I would not consider this a speed trap. Early County decided on 55 mph instead of 60 mph because of it being a farming community. Tractors are often on this road and even though it is a four lane now the 55 mph limit is safer. As long as you do the speed limit you will be fine. BI

One problem with that information... the state — NOT the county — sets the speed limit on all state routes, even when they run through a downtown. I learned that first hand over 25 years ago as mayor when we attempted to raise the speed limit on segments of several roads running through Blakely. The speed limits came to our attention after we hired a police officer who began writing a number of speeding tickets. Several citizens came to a council meeting to complainthat they wer only two of three mph over the limit, so I instructed the police chief to make a list of every ticket written the previous 18 months, their location, the posted speed limit and the speed of the driver. A couple of years earlier we had instructed officers unless there were circumstances dictating otherwise, they should use their discretion to issue warning tickets unless the driver was exceeding the limit by more than 15 mph. Guess what! Of approximately 200 tickets that had been issued only two were for offenses under the 15 mph discretion mentioned. Of those two, one was in a school zone with school traffic in the area and the other was issued after the driver cussed the officer. Drive safely and please visit Early County again.

Blakely is an area with high police activity, regardless of whether it might be considered a speedtrap. (I know, I work for the county.) There are about 30 officers working in the area in different capacities (corrections, etc.) I have had four encounters with the police on highway 27 in a little over a year. In two cases, tickets were not written because there was no sufficient cause for pulling us over in the first place (such as driving on Halloween.) One was a ticket for speeding in the 55 mph area on the way to church. And in one instance, an officer couldn't pull me over because he clocked me after he had crossed the Clay County line...he tailed me for 15 minutes afterwards with my cruise control set on 55. Because of the high level of police activity (by contrast, neighboring Clay County has about 6 officers) I would advise avoiding the Blakely portion of highway 27 whenever possible. An alternate southbound route is to take Christ Missionary Church rd (also Bluffton-Arlington road) in Bluffton to Arlington, then Arlington to Colquitt. About the same distance, but you bypass Blakely. With some experience, you can reverse the route going northbound.

I have to say that this is a speed trap. I got stopped going N on 27 around 11:30 pm on a Sunday night. The trooper says he clocked me at 73 in a 55, when I know that I had set my cruise at just under 70. Also, I distinctly remember passing a 65 mph sign just before being pulled. Besides, there was absolutely NO traffic out there at the time (I could have laid out in the middle of the road and took a nap). That being said, why would there even be a trooper out clocking?