30 MPH driving through town and a couple of adjustments on 301. Used the road often for 20 years, even with NY plates, and I was never stopped. The flea market was my rest stop, a quick walk around, pick up some farm fresh vegetables and then get back on the road. I don’t remember seeing anyone ever being pulled over. Obey the road signs,and everything is fine. Then try to go over the bridge by the Beach on Anna Marie Island that has a 5mph speed limit where if you are doing 7-8 mph, the sheriff car is waiting for you.
Wow. It’s almost impossible to do 5 mph in a vehicle. You would almost have to be idling the whole way. That’s an incredibly stupid speed limit. Unless you are trying to write speeding tickets....
Waldo has had the speedtrap reputation for over 40 years that I’ve driven the road from Jacksonville to Gainesville. My wife and I would drive slowly through town and note the usual hiding spots of the cops and commiserate with the poor souls who got caught. From time to time there were articles and exposes of the corruption in the town but nothing has changed in almost half a century. (We were never stopped.)
There are few places where I pay more attention to the speed limit signs than the Waldo corridor on 301.
It and its many traffic lights are reasons enough to skip it altogether and take I95 and I4 instead, depending on when I'd have to go through Orlando.
It never seemed like an obvious speed trap to me, though I was well aware of its reputation and drove very carefully in city limits. I think of a speed trap as a 65 mph road, come over a hill and the speed limit abruptly drops to 35. Or there's a speed limit sign that is "accidentally" sited where it's obscured by brush. Or there's a ludicrous speed limit, like 10 mph.
The main road the Waldo is US 301, though 24 branches off in town. I assume 301 is where most of the tickets are issued.
What should be remembered is that 301 is of the category of road that is the most dangerous of all. It's a divided highway, but without limited access. You have people, quite literally, backing out of their driveways onto the highway which people are booming down as if they're on an interstate. 65 mph speed limit, which means general traffic is near 75 and a lot are going 80 or more.
No controlled access, 80 mph. Gee, you think that might cause problems?
As I remember them, when you enter city limits there's perfectly good signage of a drop to 55, and a mile or so along when entering the town itself equally good signage dropping it to 45. Which isn't at all unreasonable for a town environment where people are pulling in and out of parking lots and side streets, etc.
What, should people just boom through a small town at 75 mph?
Not defending the Waldo cops or their purported lawbreaking. Just noting that in my experience the traffic laws in the town aren't at all unreasonable.