Bluff City, Tennessee Speed Traps

As you approach the community of Bluff City, TN the speed limit abruptly changes from 55 to 45. The city has placed a camera exactly there as drivers slow from highway speed to the slower 45. I was sent a ticket from an “infraction” in 2017…they been sending bills ever since, even hiring attorneys to try and collect. These type of speed traps have no teeth…they can not give you points or affect your drivers license or insurance. I don’t like camera speed traps….ain’t gonna pay the ticket either! Even the Tennessee state legislature has begged these people to do away with this absurd entrapment, but as far as I am aware it is still in business. Watch out.

Fixed camera, which can be spotted on Google Earth. You get a Notice of Violation in the mail about 20 days after passing the trap. You are discouraged from challenging the citation by having to appear in person and facing $100 court costs in addition to the fine if you are unsuccessful. You are encouraged to pay the fine by a red-letter declaration that you won’t get points if you pay the fine. Google the boundaries of this fiefdom and see the gerrymandering that pushes the city limits like fingers down the major arteries, facilitating this revenue generator.

We were lost and looking at signs for streets and towns on the way to a pharmacist location for medicine, not the all at once in your face 10mph speed drop. The speed limit was 55mph, but somewhere within a one mile space we were all at once in a 45 mph speed zone. We did not see it nor know it until we got a ticket a few weeks later. I was driving a borrowed truck and the owner got the ticket. Now I learn that this place in known by KY. VA, and even locals when I mention it, as a place to avoid due to this crap. If there is a sign there, one would have to be looking a mile ahead with great vision on the side in the lane by the sign to ever see it. It is so famous, or infamous, that it is one of the web pages that pulls up when you hit Bluff City, TN. on the computer. It must be a great revenue for the town when it shows before hotels and tourist attractions, if there is any? I was told by a local they even went the back road home in case someone was in a hurry to get to Kentucky Fried Chicken (ironic, go to KY. Fried Chicken get a chicken crap ticket in TN.) or Hardee’s, which is about all that is near the trap. By sneak stealing this $50 dollar ticket or more, even if it is 2 miles over the limit, they lost all of any of my relatives and friends in Piney Flats that spends a dollar in the town. It is sad and greedy when a town is known best for it’s speed trap. Avoid the whole road around and through it would be best, then take your money on down the road and go to a restaurant not on the Speed Trap HWY.

A camera/photo speed trap.

Just to let folks know the state of Tennessee has found this speed trap to be illegal due to the fact the speed limit goes from 55 to 45 and in less than one mile the cameras are set up.

Maybe all the good folks that got nailed with a ticket can call the city of Bluff City and ask for a refund.

As a “local”, I don’t even use that highway any longer, I “go around” via back roads; as I don’t want one of their stupid camera tickets. 🙂

December 2010,,,Tennessee welcome wagon! These folks are interested in one thing, and it’s not safety. It’s all about revenue collection. This road is PHOTO enforced. Posted speed of 45 and I was according to the photo machine doing 60. It’s a 4 lane road and maybe we could see another 3 to 4 cars total on both sides of the street. Next year we will travel and soend our $$ in another state!