US drivers have resorted to placing inflatable dolls in the passenger seat to avoid fines for driving alone in car pool lanes.

The police have confiscated sex toys and also caught drivers using their dogs to trick officers into thinking they were carrying a passenger. One man was caught holding a tennis racket over the passenger seat while he drove with the other hand.

In California, a woman contested a fine on the ground that she was pregnant at the time and the unborn child was her passenger.

Drivers frequently cruise bus queues seeking passengers before entering what are known in the US as “highoccupancy vehicle” lanes. Students in California have been known to charge drivers $5 for the privilege of transporting them to college.

This month a judge in Denver ordered a man who had used a mannequin in a car pool lane to stand with it by the side of the road with a sign saying: The HOV lane is not for dummies.

Via The Times.