Skip to main content

Skeleton key to Arizona HOV lane violation

The lengths to which drivers will go to speed up their journey has been brought into focus by one man’s – slightly grisly - ingenuity.
By Adam Hill January 28, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Skeleton crew (picture from Arizona Department of Public Safety)

Arizona Department of Public Safety (ADPS) revealed that one of its officers has issued a ticket to a 62-year-old man who was illegally using a Phoenix high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane.

In itself this is not particularly unusual. HOV lanes are a fixture on routes which are prone to congestion and it is far from unknown for devious, lone commuters to position shop window dummies in their passenger seats to beat the system. But it is uncommon for someone to try the same thing with a skeleton as a co-driver.

The bare bones of the matter are these: the offence took place on Arizona State Route 101 near Apache Blvd in Phoenix. The skeleton, shrouded in Halloween cobwebs and topped with a battered camouflage hat, was propped up in a bid to circumvent the forces of law enforcement. 

ADPS saw straight through the ploy. Using the hashtags ‘NiceTry’ and ‘YoureNotHeMan’, the organisation tweeted: “Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong!”

A less than amused ADPS spokesman told ITS International: “What we would add is that this behaviour is not only illegal, it is also a disservice to all other motorist that are attempting to do the right thing.”


Related Content

  • Business intelligence improves bus fleet management
    April 24, 2013
    Innovative use of fleet management-generated data has optimised passenger service running times and achieved full payback in its first quarter Metro Vancouver’s South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink) has gained substantial benefits in bus idle time savings from a business intelligence (BI) solution, built from data captured in its ITS-based fleet management system. Delivered by public transport ITS specialist Init under a contract awarded in 2006, this includes on-board computers,
  • From coast to coast: US states embrace automated enforcement for safer roads, says Verra Mobility
    September 12, 2023
    The concept of Vision Zero has hit a pothole in the US – but there is hope for a safer future, says Jon Baldwin, executive vice president, government solutions, at Verra Mobility
  • Distraction dominated teen driver accident causes.
    June 3, 2015
    As a new report shows that distracted driving is a bigger cause of accidents than previously thought, Jon Masters asks what should be done to counter this problem. Research carried out by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has shed new light on the dangers of distraction for teen drivers. Six years of study using video analysis has shown that 58% of all crashes involving teen drivers are caused by the driver being distracted and proved that the influence of external factors is stronger than previously th
  • Diverse development of tolling business models
    April 25, 2013
    A diversity of tolling business models offers a wider toolbox of highway finance options, as the IBTTA’s Patrick Jones explains. The business models for America’s tolled highways have gone through several different evolutions over the last 75 years, reflecting a succession of shifts in transportation policy and politics, financing and funding models, urban patterns, customer needs, and technology. And with more and more decision-makers expressing renewed interest in tolling, it’s that very diversity that ma