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.

After implementation of new transit regs that require drivers to have at least three passengers to qualify for the carpool lane, New Zealanders have been scheming to trick the system.

Traffic cameras monitor passing vehicles, and anyone caught in the carpool lane without the required number of people gets slapped with a $114 fine.

That hasn’t stopped commuters from trying to pull a fast one. Among the list of fake vehicle occupants: blow-up dolls, shop mannequins and dogs dressed up as children.

Local college students are turning the problem into a business opportunity — they’re charging a small fee to get driven past traffic cameras and enforcement officers, and then they run back up the road to repeat the trick for other needy vehicles.

They’ve got to earn their beer money somehow, right?