DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997                 TAG: 9705190145

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Public Safety 

SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER AND NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:  123 lines

TRYING TO BEAT HOV ODDS HOV LANES AND THE LAW

As a Ford Thunderbird blew by Virginia State Trooper J.R. DeFilippo in the reversible HOV lane on Interstate 64, DeFilippo could have sworn he saw two people in the car.

But when a car, especially one with tinted windows, zips by at 80 mph, things or people aren't always what they seem. On that particular morning last February, the passenger turned out to be a dummy, whom DeFilippo later dubbed ``Bed-head Bob'' for his unkempt hairdo.

``When I got up to the car, there's old Bob belted in the passenger seat,'' DeFilippo said. ``The driver said it was in his car so his wife would feel safe driving to work. I guess she wasn't working that day.''

DeFilippo gave the driver a ticket for using the HOV lane without meeting the two-person-per-car minimum. Legless dummies, like Bed-head Bob, full-body dummies, dolls, stuffed animals or pets don't count as a second person, DeFilippo said.

Not the driver's lucky day, especially when you consider the odds of getting caught.

HOV cheaters in Virginia Beach and Norfolk stand about a 1-in-10 chance of being caught, according to an informal and unscientific survey by The Virginian-Pilot.

Last year, state police cited 2,411 drivers for abusing the HOV lanes on I-64 in Norfolk and on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, state police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame said. Tickets cost about $80, including court costs.

That's an average of about 10 tickets a day - less than two tickets an hour - during the times and days HOV regulations are in force. The regulations are in effect from 5 to 8:30 a.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Fridays.

But recent traffic counts on five days showed the police can't keep up with cheaters who slip into the HOV lanes to bypass the rush-hour jams.

An average of nearly 50 lone drivers illegally cruised the eastbound lane of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway during the five days The Pilot monitored the 3 to 6 p.m. commute. The Pilot monitored a five-mile stretch of the HOV lane on the Expressway.

But last year, state police cited an average of just 10 drivers a day during both morning and afternoon rush hours on all 19 miles of HOV lanes in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach area.

Only I-64 and the Expressway have HOV lanes. Almost 20,000 vehicles travel the reversible HOV lane on I-64 each day, said Carl Crowe, an operations engineer at the Virginia Department of Transportation. No figures were available for the Expressway.

Trooper DeFilippo said the number of HOV-lane abusers tends to be higher on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway than on the reversible lanes on I-64.

``In the HOV lanes on I-64, once you get in there's nowhere for you to go, so most people get caught,'' DeFilippo said. ``Where it's not reversible, you can get in and out of those lanes so there's more violations.''

Either way, many motorists say they figure the odds of getting nabbed are slim.

``I'm not proud to say this, but I sneak into the HOV quite often,'' said a 36-year-old Virginia Beach salesman who didn't want his name published. ``Especially around the Newtown Road area, where the regular lanes come to a standstill, it's just so tempting. Knock on wood, I haven't gotten a ticket yet.''

HOV lane abusers also outnumber the enforcers. On a recent Monday morning rush hour, 11 troopers were assigned to patrol the Norfolk and Virginia Beach expressways.

``I almost never see (state police troopers) pulling anyone over, so I figure, what the heck?'' said Susan, an admitted HOV abuser. Susan, too, didn't want her last name published. ``I don't think the HOV system is really working, and I would really rather see all the lanes open to traffic. It's frustrating to sit in a jam while the left lane is nearly empty.''

Not surprisingly, more solitary drivers sneak into HOV lanes during the biggest traffic crunches. From 3 to 4 p.m., few transgressions were observed. But as the Expressway filled, rule-breakers rushed into the HOV lanes. From 5 to 6 p.m. one day, as many as one in five drivers were seen breaking the law.

The HOV lanes were created for a purpose, DeFilippo said, and solo drivers need to realize those lanes aren't meant for them.

``We can't keep building more roads to accommodate all the cars,'' he said. ``So we're going to have to find ways to reduce the number of cars.''

The lanes help save time, money and gas, he said. They are also good for the environment because they encourage people to conserve natural resources and because fewer cars on the road means less pollution, he said.

Here's how the traffic survey was done:

On five days in one month, The Pilot recorded the numbers of HOV cheaters in two different ways. On three days, a reporter traveled at 55 mph in the lane flanking the HOV lane and counted the number of solitary drivers who passed. On the other two days, a reporter parked in a lot with a clear view of the Expressway and counted cheaters.

The number of cheaters ranged from a high of 62 on a Friday to a low of 39 on a Monday. In all, 240 cheaters were spotted. That's an average of 16 per restricted hour - eight times more than the average number of tickets for HOV violations given per restricted hour.

The count is by no means scientific.

No official estimates or counts of the number of HOV violators are available. And since counting cheaters on the I-64 reversible HOV lanes couldn't be done safely or legally, the survey measured only the number of transgressions on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway.

But beware: Not all cheaters get away.

One woman who got caught traveling solo in an HOV lane argued in court that her unborn child - she was pregnant - was her second passenger. The judge said an unborn baby doesn't meet the HOV standard for a second passenger.

DeFilippo has also caught people who use balloons, hats on headrests, life-sized stuffed animals and dolls in child-restraint seats to fake out police.

While the odds of getting caught breaking the HOV rules may be slim, the odds of getting out of the ticket once you're caught aren't. Last year, troopers throughout the commonwealth wrote more than a half-million tickets for all traffic violations and won 92 percent of their cases in court, according to the state police.

And if you get caught, don't bother using these excuses: I didn't know; someone cut me off and forced me into the lane; I didn't realize what time it was; I didn't see the sign; and I was just passing.

DeFilippo's heard them too many times already.

``Have you ever been cut off and forced into a lane during rush hour traffic?'' he said. ``We've desecrated the landscape with signs, so I don't know how someone can't see them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

IAN MARTIN, The Virginian-Pilot

State trooper John Defilippo confiscated the dummy from a motorists

he pulled over in an HOV lane.

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