At one time, before our nation’s Interstate system was completed, trips between the north and the popular winter destinations in Florida involved extensive routes on two-lane country roads in Alabama and Georgia. Travel times were slow as drivers had to pass through numerous small towns, their lower speed limits, and traffic signals.
Certain towns saw an opportunity to add cash to their coffers by targeting these motorists for traffic violations. Some took it to the extremes where they created systems designed to essentially trap motorists, whether or not they were actually breaking any laws. These speed traps escalated to the point that national publications and government officials began to try and force these departments to change their practices.
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Jesup, Georgia, was one of the first towns to be branded a speed trap on a national basis. In the 1950s, the American Automobile Association began advising its members to reroute around the city to avoid being stopped and harassed. Attempts to remedy the situation made it to the state legislature on more than one occasion, but their practices were defended by the sheriffs, claiming them as a measure to save lives by lowering speeds.
The negative publicity impacted Jesup’s businesses to the point that area business owners erected signs at the city limits warning motorists of the upcoming speed traps. When the Sheriff’s compensation was changed to a flat salary, the number of citations issued was immediately reduced to a level consistent with non-speed trap towns.
If there was one town that stood out above all the other speed traps, it was Ludowici, Georgia. The hamlet’s one traffic light was in a sharp curve on U.S. 301, a popular route down the eastern coast to Jacksonville and the Atlantic side of Florida. From the early 1950s until the 1970s, you could find reports of the scams in newspapers, magazines, and television stations across the country. Three Georgia Governors made it their mission to clean up the corrupt little town, and all three failed.
Part of the motivation behind creating these “speed trap” cities was the fee-based system under which sheriffs and other law enforcement officials were paid. The Sheriff in some counties could personally receive as much as a third of the fine amount. In the early 1950s, officers received $2.50 for each ticket written. That amount steadily increased over the years. Fines for speeding were often seen going directly into the pockets of the officers who wrote the tickets.
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In 1953, the American Automobile Association named Ludowici “the nation’s foremost speed trap.” AAA maps came with warnings about the town, underlined in red. The organization said Ludowici received more complaints than all other cities combined. In 1959, Time Magazine called Ludowici a “jerkwater traffic trap.” In 1970, the magazine called it a “malignant exception to progress.” In a city with a population in 1962 of only around 1,500 people, in one week that year, Ludowici’s officers wrote seven hundred tickets.
The town was also known for its clip joints, or businesses with rigged gaming machines. One man who was lured into a dice game at a service station in town only left after his wallet was lightened by $640. Prostitution was also closely tied in with the clip joints.
The only traffic light in Ludowici was rigged to be controlled by a device in a nearby barber shop. An unmarked police car was posted near the intersection. When an out-of-town car approached, an attendant in the barber shop could change the light at the last minute from green to red, skipping yellow altogether. It would be too late for the driver to stop. The officer stationed nearby would pull over the car and issue a ticket.
Violators would be forced to either pay a fine or post an appearance bond. With most receiving tickets residing a distance away, returning for a court appearance, which would likely be biased, seemed unfeasible, so they paid up. Locals had a shortcut around the light that kept them out of trouble.
In 1962, Governor Carl Sanders decided to clamp down on the illicit activity of the police department. He suspended the use of radar, and the town responded by using the speedometers on the police cars to identify violators. There was no decline in the number of tickets written.
Still, the racquets thrived. In 1970, Georgia’s Governor Lester Maddox famously had signs placed near the Ludowici city limits, warning drivers of the speed trap and clip joints that awaited them just ahead. When one of the signs was destroyed, Maddox ordered the other to be guarded around the clock by Georgia State Patrol troopers.
Local citizens founded an organization they called the “Good Government League.” Trying to change law enforcement practices and the resulting image the town carried around the country, the group unsuccessfully confronted the officeholders in public meetings, which often turned physical. Ultimately, the citizen’s group was no more effective than the three Georgia Governors.
Fines and clip joint losses were not the only costs incurred by non-local drivers. Allegations were widespread about drivers’ cars being disabled while they were attending to the business of their tickets and being forced to deal with local repair shops. Drivers stopping for gas would get an offer to “check under the hood,” which would often result in the car no longer running or immediately becoming inoperable. There were reports that the attendants simply removed parts, cleaned and painted them, then charged the unwitting customer for their old parts back.
In all, three Governors tried to shut down the improprieties in Ludowici, but ultimately the opening of Interstate 95 did what the trio couldn’t. The new highway eliminated the need for travelers to pass through the small towns on their former routes. Sadly, the fading away of Ludowici was not the end of Southern speed traps.
Wilmer, Alabama, had a nine-mile stretch of U.S. 98 in its city limits, where the speed limit changed six times. The tiny city received so much bad press for its speed trap in the 1990s that the town decided to disincorporate. Brookside, Alabama, was reported to collect $487 in fines and forfeitures for every man, woman, and child that resides there. Fruithurst, Alabama, had only 250 residents but employed six police officers. The town issued more speeding tickets than the state’s capital, Montgomery.
