SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities are issuing more hefty carpool violation tickets as an increasing number of San Francisco Bay Area solo drivers try to cheat the system.
The Oakland Tribune reports Wednesday that state and Santa Clara County officials surveyed motorists and found that an average of 41 percent of drivers on county's expressways cheated in the carpool lanes at 28 locations the county monitored.
That's nearly double the number of scofflaws from five years ago.
Tickets are $491.
Caltrans says the cheating rate on Highway 101 south of San Francisco was more than 30 percent, far greater than the 5 percent recorded three years ago.
The California Highway Patrol is on pace to issue more than 22,000 carpool citations this year in the nine Bay Area counties, up by 3,000 from a year ago.
