Car-pool dummy busted

Mairin Independant Journal ^ | 11-03-05 | Gary Klien

[Cagey]

Juan Leon, the Marin CHP public information officer, documents the evidence yesterday after a kickboxing dummy was confiscated from a commuter using the car-pool lane with it strapped into the passenger seat. The CHP issued a citation to the driver.

[Not A Snowbird]

Ha! The dummy even has a sourpuss "I'm on my way to work" look on its face.

[coloradan]

Thompson, a patrolman for the past 15 years, including 10 in Marin, has made something of a specialty out of flushing out carpool violators.

I'm glad Kali has things like crime, illegal immigration, corruption, and so forth so much under control that police officers have the opportunity to concentrate on things like carpool violators.

[Cagey]

New Jersey drivers were heard a few years ago and the state got rid of it's car pool lanes. I wonder if Californians can do the same.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Apparently Morgan's response "didn't have legs".

[Cagey]

Yea, but they nabbed $351 for the state piggy bank. That's what really counts.

[Question_Assumptions]

There are still some carpool lanes in New Jersey, specifically on the northern Turnpike (where they help busses get to NYC more quickly, their primary purpose, in my opinion). They got rid of them on 287 because they were a nightmare.

[Question_Assumptions]

I think the secret is to drive a minivan with tinted windows and baby seats in the back. A friend drove her minivan into DC for months before someone told her that the northern Virginia highway she was using was HOV only when she was using it. She was never stopped and suspected that the tinted windows and child seats had something to do with it.

[Cagey]

They got rid of them on 287 because they were a nightmare.

And Interstate 80. But you're right, I did forget about the bus lanes going into the city.

[Sacajaweau]

Two dummies in that car!!

[Atlas Sneezed]

The notion that the dummy and jacket needed to be taken for evidence is absurd. He should have written the citation just as for anyone with an empty passenger seat. (Take a picture if you must.)

This is a press publicity stunt by cops who should have better things to do.

[Graybeard58]

That might not work in Illinois:

What is the law in Illinois regarding tinted windows?

625 ILCS 5/12-503. Windshields must be unobstructed and equipped with wipers.

(a) No person shall drive a motor vehicle with any sign, poster, window application, reflective material, nonreflective material or tinted film upon the front windshield, sidewings or side windows immediately adjacent to each side of the driver. A nonreflective tinted film may be used along the uppermost portion of the windshield if such material does not extend more than 6 inches down from the top of the windshield. Nothing in this Section shall create a cause of action on behalf of a buyer against a dealer or manufacturer who sells a motor vehicle with a window which is in violation of this Section.

[Dark Knight]

High Occupation Vehicle lanes cause congestion. A fourlane road would have a 20-25% higher throughput of traffic if those lanes were normal traffic lanes.

Accidents involving HOV traffic to regular lanes or vice versa are more serious because of the speed differential. The Puget Sound (Washington state) is going to spend BILLIONS on road projects and most will not include new general traffic lanes.

HOV lanes also discriminates against single people. The PC term is car pool lane. It is supposed to take other vehicles off the road. A parent with a child, or a couple does not take another vehicle off the road.

It's a dumb and costly idea.

DK

[Ramius]

Yah... the carseat lanes should be kept for the real intended users! People with babies in car seats!

[Michael.SF.]

I wonder if Californians can do the same.

It will never happen. The PC crowd is too well organized. Case in point: handicap zones. A colleague parked in one, by mistake (poor markings, no blue sign). She got a ticket. Pleaded not guilty. At her trial three advocates and an attorney showed up to argue against her.

All she had was a roll of film. she lost.

If they tried to change the CP Lanes, the PC crown would go bonkers.

[ooioo]

I'm glad Kali has things like crime, illegal immigration, corruption, and so forth so much under control that police officers have the opportunity to concentrate on things like carpool violators.

Interesting logic -- so we should rate the severity of all crimes and then only pursue the top three on the list?

[Quick Shot]

Should have put the dummy in the driver seat. It would have fit in better with the rest of the drivers in Marin.
Lived there 18 years ago and it could not of got better since then.

Ever notice 5 minutes after the car pool lane times out the traffic moves at double the speed and the number of cars has not changed. Car pool lanes are only to keep the busses on schedule.

[TommyDale]

I remember back in the 1980s when a funeral director was stopped and issued a citation for driving the HOV lane. He went to court, and because he had a corpse in the hearse, the judge tossed the case. The law (at that time) didn't stipulate that the "passenger" had to be alive.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Most folks don't have jobs where they arrive en masse to a centralized location and leave at exactly the same time. Carpool lanes are a great way of allowing government employees to commute in comfort.

In their zeal for ever more cash to spend, states criminalize ever more rational behavior.

[two134711]

Bumping a great, accurate post.