I got my first Tennessee speeding ticket yesterday. I was doing 73 in a 55 zone on 25E south of town. It’s my wife’s fault for buying a red car.
I like my seat back and my steering wheel low. Unfortunately, the wheel position obscured the speedometer. On my car I have the gadgets set so there is a big digital display of my speed right in front of me. I didn’t want to fool with the settings in her car. So, I tried to match the prevalent speed of my highway neighbors.
That strategy did not work well.
I waited for what seemed like and inordinately long time between introduction and presentation. I commented to my wife that the state troopers should have a printer in their cruiser, so they don’t have to write it all out. Ironically, Mr. Trooper handed me a full page, obviously fresh off a printer since it curled up.
“Officer, can you tell me, how much is my fine.”
“No, you need to call this number tomorrow.”
A nice lady answered the phone letting me know if I was ticketed by a state trooper it takes about a week for them to get the paperwork. So, that gives me a full week to agonize over how much I have to pay.
It seems like Tennessee takes speeding very seriously, like it is a sizable chunk of state revenue. Where I lived in the Chicago area, if you weren’t doing ten or more over the speed limit on the highways and tollways, you were a significant hazard to the traffic flow.
Things are different here.
According to census data, there are less than 5,000 people in old town and new town (New Tazewell and Old Tazewell). How does that explain the traffic on Route 33, which reminds me of Chicago? My theory is that the local topography is not conducive to building highways, so about everything is on one road.
Another thing, what’s with the strobe-accented red lights? I have never seen those before. I guess they are designed to get people’s attention and not necessarily to induce a seizure.
It’s the mountain roads that are my favorite with their crazy intersections, hairpin curves, narrow lanes, and my personal favorite, hills that you cannot see over. One thing they don’t have is shoulders. Pulling over could be a serious mistake. This network of windy, hilly roads make up the Apalachin Grand Prix. It seems to be a challenge to see how fast you can take them. The cops aren’t there because the road itself limits your speed.
Being new to the area, we have tried to find so many sites that we have read about as we were researching our surroundings. Several of those we never did find and was thankful just to make it back to civilization.
Since it looks like I will be making a significant contribution the state coffers, I would like to designate my contribution to putting up better signs.
One more thing we have learned is that you cannot give directions by saying turn at the Dollar General, the Baptist Church, or the old barn.
