Re: Mistakenly Pulled Over Today by the VASP on the HOT 495 Express Lanes
Posted by:
HOT Lane Driver
()
Date: August 01, 2015 08:05PM
HOT cheater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Huh??? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >@cxu: In addition to the light on the gantry, the
> troopers can read the status of >every active
> transponder in real time on their in-cruiser
> laptops. As EZPass >equipped vehicles enter the
> HOT lanes and drive under the sensor on the
> gantry, >they get fed the EZPass transponder ID#,
> the year, make, model and color of the >vehicle as
> well as the license plate information and the
> position of the HOV/non->HOV switch. As to the
> question in your post, it's a good one and is the
> substance >of Lane.Meyer's/Lane.Myer's fraudulent
> free use of the HOT lanes.
>
> My understanding was that the trooper's computer
> gets fed the switch position at the point of entry
> (which is used for calculating the charge,
> regardless of whether it's later changed), so
> flipping the switch doesn't help you any. Is this
> true?
And right there? You just hit on the loophole. Or a possible loophole. This is what Lane.Meyer/Lane.Myer and others looking to game the system have been talking about. Here's the scenario more fully illustrated...
You're driving in a vehicle alone. You enter the 495 HOT Express Lanes and the reader on the gantry registers your EZPass transponder in the HOV position (which is illegal...but they have to catch you, right?). After driving for a few minutes, you pass a stationary VASP trooper in his cruiser on the shoulder. You're doing 65mph and he's reviewing the EZ Pass data on his laptop. He's looking at a screen so, he's not going to be able to visually inspect your vehicle's occupancy.
As soon as you pass the stationary trooper, he makes the decision to try and ferret out whether you have 3 or more people in the car and should be running in those lanes with the EZPass transponder in the HOV position or if he's going to be able to provide his employer with some revenue. You see him pull out into traffic AND immediately throw your transponder into the non-HOV position and then come to a stop on the shoulder BEFORE passing another gantry with a reader. There's no way he is seeing you do this.
The trooper approaches your car and says, "You don't have 3 or more people in the vehicle...why is your transponder in the HOV position?" and that's when you shrug and say, "It's not in the HOV position officer...see for yourself."
What happens next? I really don't know...and THAT'S the loophole. There's obviously a lot of ifs there and it has to break right for one to escape a ticket but, it's completely plausible.
It has been mentioned further up this thread that some of the VASP cruisers have been equipped with an antenna array that can read transponders while your in motion. That's a smart move by VASP and there's no real citizen response to that...you're getting a ticket if you're caught by one of those specially equipped cruisers.
And yet...why is it there's money to buy special equipment for the VASP but there's not money to put cameras on the gantries?