Mannequin Kelly makes up a carpool in HOV lane on LIE NY

She looks terrific from the waist up, a stylish redhead in a blue top and a print scarf and sunglasses.  Beautiful complexion.

We'll call her Kelly.

Waist down there's nothing there because Kelly was the top half of a mannequin strapped in the passenger seat of the car of Katherine Frascinella, a 61 year old woman in Suffolk County NY who regularly drives the Long Island Expressway (LIE), and loves to use those empty HOV or carpool lanes.

For months with Kelly in the passenger seat Frascinella apparently passed muster as a legitimate carpooler.

Highway officials like to tell innocent journalists that "cameras and scanners" can detect cheaters in HOV lanes. Baloney.

In the 30 years since HOV lanes were established there have been scores of attempts at devising an automatic occupant counting system for cars. All have failed.

The  cop's eyeball is still the best available vehicle occupant counter and even they get it wrong quite often. High seatbacks, tinted glass, difficult sight lines and sheer speed make it tough to accurately count people in a car. A tiny baby is enough to make the vehicle HOV2-eligible.

But at least where the cop is suspicious he can pull the car over, open doors and look inside to check.

On the LIE this week deputy sheriff Robert Howard saw Frascinella and Kelly. Something wasn't right about Kelly. Howard took off after Frascinella and pulled her over... and sure enough Kelly wasn't the warm-blooded second human occupant required by law in the HOV lane.

Frascinella got a $135 ticket for driving solo in the HOV lane. Kelly got to be photographed sitting on the sheriff's cruiser.

HOT (High Occupancy/Toll) lanes pose the same enforcement challenges as HOV lanes. We think they should give up counting occupants and treat vehicles the same regardless of occupancy. The toll alone provides a good incentive to carpool since it spreads the cost of the toll among more people.

TOLLROADSnews 2010-02-03