Woman tickets the Department of Transportation for wasted gas
We've all been stuck in construction traffic and cringed at the unmitigated waste of resources, time, and money -- not to mention carbon emissions. While we might have thoughts about standing up to The Man when we get screwed over, most of us rarely do anything but crank up the radio and stew. Well, one woman in Michigan actually sent in a letter, billing the Department of Transportation $16 for her wasted gas. Apparently, Carol Greenburg and her cat Sammy were on the way back from the vet when they got caught in a 50min span of traffic hell. A situation that Greenburg says she could have avoided if MDOT had posted the proper construction signage.
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Of course, Greenburg didn't expect to be reimbursed, she wrote the letter to vent. Call her a whiner if you want, but I call her a patriot.From the letter:
"Thousands of vehicles from both Interstates, including mine, sat an estimated 50 minutes, wasting thousands of dollars worth of $4-per-gallon gasoline, belching tons of emissions into the atmosphere."
Apparently, this kind of complaint doesn't actually come across the desk of MDOT's desk nearly often enough. In Detroit, MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said that the road maintenance was necessary and that Greenburg's letter was not the norm. According to him:
"We usually get damage claims about stones kicked up from the roadway or overspray from painting I have never heard of anyone being compensated for the loss of gasoline."I've often wondered if it was really necessary to do construction work at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, or on the day before Thanksgiving -- but I've never come up with a cost effective way to complain. Maybe someday, state highway departments will be the subject of lawsuits from clean air groups when they commit traffic atrocities like this one.
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