(Pardon me while I roll on the floor in fits of laughter at my own insane comment.)

I can’t imagine this would stand up to a direct legal challenge; The police and cities will not be able to justify charging those that get pulled over for the gas that would have been pumped regardless of if they actually pulled anyone over. Its like asking taxpayers to pay for something that they’ve already paid for.

Katie Harris, 20, a babysitter and student at Georgia Perimeter College, doesn’t like the new fines. “It always seems like government officials are trying to take money from citizens’ pockets,” she says.

And yet they continue to vote for the money-grubbing thieves…

Holly Springs Mayor Tim Downing says: “This is a self-taxing system. If you don’t break the law, you don’t pay the tax.”

Typical bureaucratic response. Here’s one of my own: thieving pigs. Greedy stealing bastards. How about they prove that it actually cost them $12 to run me down? That’s asking too much, though, isn’t it. They’re the government, they don’t have to prove anything.

Great! Do you get to charge the city a fuel surcharge every time you stop and idle at a red light?

I believe we SHOULD have the right to charge cities, counties, and states for inefficient traffic management practices, one of which is allowing unskilled, inattentive, and just plain incompetent drivers to use the roads, and another of which is making three directions sit and wait for the no-traffic direction’s green light to cycle through it’s fixed-setting.

This is inexcusable, and the taxpayers have no redress.

It’s true, government agencies have a monopoly when it comes to traffic management. You and I cannot invent a new traffic management system and bring it to market in a free and capitalistic manner,

For that reason, I think governemnts have a responsibility to provide an efficent solution. Until then, yes, I really think we should be able to invoice the local authority for traffic ineffencies.

Great! Do you get to charge the city a fuel surcharge every time you stop and idle at a red light?

AMEN! This is such a racket it’s unreal.

That’s a sharp-looking little Peugot patrol car. I wonder if it’d carry all the gear American police put in their cars, but anyway it’d be interesting to see a life-cycle cost study of how a Peugot or VW compares to a Crown Vic Interceptor.

That means I can claim all this gas use to my taxes eh?

I swear these people come up with such “genius” ways to rip people off.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/French_Police_p1230006.jpg

Dump the Crown Vics and start driving Focuses!!!

BTW – the markets first responded with lowering the price of oil when the Chinese hiked the price of gasoline, then they realized this meant the Chinese weren’t getting enough gasoline for industrial use, and that they wanted to reduce private use — which means oil is scarce, which means the price goes up again.