Always Ride Free in the Carpool Lane!

You know how the carpool lane on 101 has those signs which say, "Carpool is two or more persons per vehicle?" Did that ever make you want to check out what the definition of a person is in the California Vehicle Code?

It says "Person includes a natural person or corporation." That's wide enough to, ahem, drive a truck through. Not to mention a skinny little carpool lane.

Just imagine what THAT courtroom scene'll be like:

"Your honor, I got this ticket because Officer 'so-and-so' believed I was the only 'person' riding in my car in the carpool lane during the restricted hours where the sign says two 'persons' need to be in a vehicle. Officer 'so-and-so' did correctly espy only one human being in my vehicle. From that he mistakenly believes there was only one 'person.'

But there were indeed at least two 'persons' in that automobile at that time. At least.

Why? Cuz the definition of a 'person' in the California vehicle code includes both a corporation and a natural person. Section 470. 

I had incorporation papers just to be safe, but here's why I was safe without them: there's no definition of a corporation in the California Constitution. Nothing in the California Corporations code defines a corporation, either. 

Why? Cuz a corporation is an imaginary entity. Sort of like a childhood playmate.

Some legal sources attempt the brazen task of defining the imaginary entity of a corporation. They say it's an 'association of individuals having an existence independent of the existence of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.'

That 'definition' goes for both a for-profit and a non-profit. 

A corporation is an 'entity' that has an existence separate from those of its...members. Just like an imaginary childhood playmate.

Your Honor, you might press me to establish exactly what might represent a corporation. Can we ever know it 'exists,' aside from 'its' works?

Well, here's a bone: how do we know we own a person? I mean, a corporation? Sorry. 

By owning shares which that imaginary entity sells. If I own a share in a corporation, and a corporation is a person, it means I own part of a person. 

So slavery exists.

In the nonprofit world, though, nothing signifies such.

Here's another point: corporations sell us the food we eat and the water we drink. They also daily pollute the air we breathe. So we all carry corporations in our bodies right now. And corporations make our cars.  And unless we own that hunk of metal outright, they own them, too.

So I didn't need those incorp papers, after all.

Your honor, according to the vehicle code definition and legal sources, I did have a 'person' in my car. 

But Officer 'so-and-so' believes I did NOT have another person in my car. If you rule in his favor, you are saying that corporations are not persons.

I hope you do rule in his favor. I hope you do overturn 125 years of settled law.

On the other hand, your honor, if you dismiss the ticket and say I am right, that means anyone can go into the carpool lane alone during restricted hours. That is, you are saying that everyone, riding alone in an automobile in the carpool lane during restricted hours, also has on board a corporation, or, under California law, a 'person' other than them.

And we couldn't have that, could we?"

Now dearest reader, I've been trying to get a $381 ticket by driving alone in the carpool lane during the restricted hours. I've been doing that on and off for several years.

Not once have I been caught.

Not once.