We’ve all felt the pain of a longer-than-usual commute, but this woman’s taking a stand against them.

During a massive work-zone backup on Michigan’s I-275, Carol Greenberg — along with thousands of other motorists — sat an estimated 50 minutes, waiting for Department of Transportation (DOT) workers to complete a project. That kind of delay is a regular occurrence for most commuters, but Greenberg decided to take things a step further.

She e-mailed a detailed complaint to MDOT, and followed it up with a bill for wasted gasoline. In it, she claims she and other drivers “wasted thousands of dollars worth of $4-per-gallon gasoline, belching tons of emissions into the atmosphere.”

Oddly enough, Greenberg said she doesn’t expect her invoice to be paid — it was intended to be a symbolic gesture.

Judging from MDOT’s response, her “gesture” didn”t have much of an effect: “If we paid out for one [person's delay], we would have to pay out for all and that is simply not feasible,” wrote an MDOT spokesperson.

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Tags: Commuting, Department of Transportation, Michigan