Drivers turn to blow-up dolls to beat traffic rules

[snopes]

Drivers in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland are turning to inflatable passengers to try and beat transit lane rules.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...25771920080612

[Debunker]

Originally Posted by snopes

Drivers in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland are turning to inflatable passengers to try and beat transit lane rules.

Ghosts don't count, either: http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/faq/faq79.htm

This is nothing new to us in SoCal, people have been trying to beat the system for years. CHP is pretty shrewd, though, and can usually spot the scofflaws.

[DemonWolf]

Yeah. They did that here too when they opened the carpool lane.

[DawnStorm]

I've often wondered if I could drive in the HOV lanes around here with at least one of my pets in the car.

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by DemonWolf

Yeah. They did that here too when they opened the carpool lane.

I believe that we only need two people in the car to use the carpool lane here. However, I recall at least one pregnant woman getting fined because the baby didn't count as a separate person.

[zerocool]

When I lived in Jakarta you could hire people to get in your car to go from one end of the carpool lane to the other, it cost about 20 cents. They would go back and forth all day. Probably not the intent of the traffic engineers when they recomended a carpool lane...

[mouse goddess]

Originally Posted by Phantom

I believe that we only need two people in the car to use the carpool lane here. However, I recall at least one pregnant woman getting fined because the baby didn't count as a separate person.

I remember that as well...which leads me to wonder, do kids count? I mean on one hand, they're not drivers, so you're not reducing the number of drivers on the road. But on the other hand, if one was to be ferrying 3 members of a soccer team to a game, and in that, reduced the number of cars, it seems like it should count.

[snopes]

A Sheriff's Deputy has shut down a Long Island commuter's scheme to get to work a little faster.

The Suffolk County Deputy was patrolling the car pool lane on the Long Island Expressway when he noticed something fishy about one man's passenger.

Turns out that passenger was a Plexiglas dummy.

http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9076965

[snopes]

A trooper who spotted what he thought was a passenger without a seat belt in a car on Interstate 405 pulled the vehicle over to discover the violator was a dummy.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/18918234/detail.html

[Roadhog]

Many dozens of commuters using Onewa Road in the North Shore City, New Zealand, have been ticketed over the last 20 years for having blow-up dolls, cardboard cut-outs, mannequins and many other devices in their passenger seats in order to beat the law in the 3+ carpool lane. New Zealand Police take a very dim view of such behavior.

[snopes]

A New Yorker faces a $135 traffic fine for using a mannequin as her plus-one in the high-occupancy lane of the Long Island Expressway.

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/art...v-lane-CR.html

[snopes]

Diego was a model passenger, sitting quietly with seat belt buckled, never fidgeting. But it was the huge, unblinking eyes that made a Washington state trooper suspicious.

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/art...ttle10-ON.html

[Roadhog]

One recent attempt was very clever. A fully laden livestock truck was stopped on the bus lane south of Auckland Harbour Bridge. When the driver was asked by the police officer why his truck and trailer were operating in the bus lane, he replied "This is a cow bus!". He and his 30 bovine passengers were let off with a warning. Turns out the livestock passenger (cattle, cats, dogs, horses, etc) is a gray area in New Zealand law.

[snopes]

Comment: email referenced Gentleman driving in carpool lane who carries
corporation papers strapped into adjacent seat and when stopped, claims
that Supreme Court has ruled that Corporations are People.

Did his claim hold water in a court of law?

[Sjö]

Sure, as long as its official headquarter's address is the passenger seat of that car.