---
title: Carpool Lane Cheating on the Rise, Sometimes With Fake Babies
description: More and more people are getting caught driving illegally in the carpool lanes.
authors:
  - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann
    url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/
    at_money_since: 2015
    articles: 160
    covers:
      - Lifestyle
      - Banking
      - Business
      - Career Advice
      - Credit
      - Credit Cards
      - Economy and Politics
      - Education
      - Housing
      - Identity Theft
      - Insurance
      - Investing
      - Personal Finance
      - Professional Services
      - Shopping
      - Taxes
      - Technology
    social:
      - https://x.com/ewolffmann
    former_staff: true
published: '2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z'
modified: '2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z'
section: Lifestyle
tags:
  - carpool
  - cars
  - commuting
  - Law
  - pubdesk
  - Traffic
word_count: 226
canonical: https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
---

> **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/).

![Carpool Lane Fraud](https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-113818246.jpg)

Some people leave work early to beat the traffic -- but other commuters just [grab a fake baby](http://abc7news.com/traffic/chp-warns-drivers-using-fake-babies-to-get-in-carpool-lane/967703/) and hop into the carpool lane.

The lifelike dolls -- which have actually prompted would-be police rescues in hot parking lots -- are part of what appears to be an epidemic of cheating in the carpool diamond lanes, now that rising employment has increased highway traffic woes.

In Silicon Valley's Santa Clara County, state and county officials found an average of [41% of drivers checked at 28 expressway locations](http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_28779892/carpool-cheating-tickets-are-dramatic-rise) were breaking the carpool lane rules, according to the *San Jose Mercury News*. That's almost an 100% increase from five years ago. And in nearby Redwood City, state officials say cheating has increased from 5% to 30% over the same time period.

California's Highway Patrol is on pace to dole out 22,000 tickets, which start at $350, the Mercury News says.

And phony carpoolers are not just a problem in California. In Salt Lake City, the capital of the [most religious state](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/02/18/map-the-most-religious-states-in-america/) in the union, [transportation officials say](http://www.sltrib.com/home/2856513-155/one-of-every-five-drivers-in) one in five cars in the diamond lane is riding dirty. The state is beginning to crack down, the Salt Lake Tribune reports, issuing 1,616 tickets over the past year, averaging $162.

But for many people stuck with a 2.5-hour commute, an occasional ticket might be a small price to pay.

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
      "@id": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/#breadcrumb",
      "itemListElement": [
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 1,
          "name": "Home",
          "item": "https://money.com"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 2,
          "name": "Lifestyle",
          "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 3,
          "name": "Travel",
          "item": "https://money.com/travel/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 4,
          "name": "Carpool Lane Cheating on the Rise, Sometimes With Fake Babies"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://money.com/#website",
      "url": "https://money.com",
      "name": "Money",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#organization"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/#webpage",
      "url": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/",
      "name": "Carpool Lane Cheating on the Rise, Sometimes With Fake Babies",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#website"
      },
      "datePublished": "2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z",
      "mainEntity": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "breadcrumb": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/#breadcrumb"
      },
      "dateModified": "2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Article",
      "headline": "Carpool Lane Cheating on the Rise, Sometimes With Fake Babies",
      "articleSection": "Lifestyle",
      "image": [
        {
          "@type": "ImageObject",
          "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-113818246.jpg",
          "width": 3000,
          "height": 1892,
          "caption": "Carpool Lane Fraud"
        }
      ],
      "author": [
        {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann",
          "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/",
          "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://x.com/ewolffmann"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization",
      "datePublished": "2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z",
      "description": "More and more people are getting caught driving illegally in the carpool lanes.",
      "abstract": "More and more people are getting caught driving illegally in the carpool lanes.",
      "@id": "https://money.com/carpool-lane-fraud-dummy/",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "dateModified": "2015-09-09T19:38:14.000Z",
      "wordCount": 226,
      "keywords": [
        "carpool",
        "cars",
        "commuting",
        "Law",
        "pubdesk",
        "Traffic"
      ],
      "about": [
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Lifestyle",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle"
          ]
        },
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Travel",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```