Posted on 03/23/2006 8:30:34 AM PST by Clive
The astounding sense of entitlement of some GTA commuters has left police shaking their heads after a woman was found sneaking onto the high-occupancy lanes with a fake baby in the back.
"She looked like the cat who swallowed the canary," OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley said of the woman who was pulled over yesterday. "She told the officer it normally works."
STIFF ARMS
Woolley said the cop was patrolling the HOV lanes of Hwy. 404 near Sheppard Ave. yesterday when he spotted an Intrepid whizz by and noticed the baby's arms seemed unnaturally stiff.
Not being sure, the officer decided to take a closer look and pulled the driver over.
The odd-looking child --Woolley likened it to a cartoon character from the show South Park -- was nothing more than a hooded jacket stuffed with clothing and strapped into an old car seat.
"We should have given her another ticket because the fake baby she had in there was too light to be in a forward-facing child seat," Woolley said.
"You can bet we'll be taking a closer look at all the babies we see in the next little while."
In fact, cops had expected to see similar scams turn up as soon as the popular HOV lanes -- which give commuters on sections of Hwys. 404 and 403 a swifter ride downtown -- opened last fall.
$110, 3 POINTS
"We're still writing a few hundred tickets each month," Woolley said of those abusing the lanes.
Cops think the woman ticketed yesterday, a 39-year-old Aurora resident, has children but none who need a car seat.
She faces a $110 fine and three demerit points.
Quite simply. Just off the top of my head, pull over drivers in the lane whose sole passenger is a child, or when a car in the lane is pulled over for speeding ask for the drivers license of the passenger.
Move...
Maybe if these liberals hadn't promoted abortion as a positive social good, she'd have a real baby.
Liberals!
____________
Talk about politicizing everything!
It takes quite a single minded person to get an anti-abortion point made in an HOV violation thread.
The woman should have a sense of entitlement, her gasoline taxes go to pay for the construction and maintenance of underused carpool lanes. Such lanes would be better named "government employee" express lanes as those are about the only employees who arrive at work at the same time, work the same number of hours and leave, en masse at the end of the day.
Really, I agree with you. I'm just taking advantage of government stupidity. I can't carpool because my job requires me to be someplace different practically every week. So I do what I have to do - all perfectly legal and above board.
Yes, move and then subject my husband to a 3 hour commute on top of his Army training. Brilliant.
HOV lanes are great for car chases. The perp getting chased last night on Fox was deftly using the car pool lanes to evade capture.
Isn't that what the grass off the shoulder is for?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601288/posts?page=1,100
We love a car chase... (Fox News)
Quit...
"The astounding sense of entitlement of some"
That caught my eye too. She (like all drivers) pays for the road, yet they find her sense of "entitlement" "astounding".
Hey, single-mindedness, is a virtue here on FR.
So I should quit because I have to ride a bus every day? And then do what? Have my house foreclosed on because we can't pay the mortgage? All because I shouldn't take advantage of the evil HOV lane by riding the bus every day? Get real. I see some real HOV lane haters on here, but they really do allow some of us working folk to get to jobs we might not otherwise get to.
"I'm waiting for.. and unfortunately I may be prophetic here... lanes reserved for Hybrid cars."
I think I read somewhere about that being considered.
" If the goal of HOV lanes is to increase use of mass transit and to increase carpooling, I would say they are very successful."
Unfortunately that goal is not served by allowing people with children in their cars to count. The system only "works" if it causes someone else (another driver) to elect not to drive but instead ride with someone else.
You said -- "HOV lanes are stupid and they don't accomplish anything."
I guess it depends on which lane you're in.
When I'm in the HOV lane -- it does a lot of good for me (especially when I look at the other lanes).
:-)
Regards,
Star Traveler
Agreed, but in the general case, I see plenty of people who carpool and use mass transit to take advantage of the HOV lanes. It would be hypocritical not to allow certain cars with more than one person (a parent and child) and allow other cars with more than one person (two adults) simply on the basis that the two adults are both drivers and "probably" would drive separately otherwise.
And we are threatened with our personal destruction for noncompliance.
You said -- "HOV lanes are a disgrace."
Not when I'm driving in one...
Regards,
Star Traveler
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