I think this low level stuff is mostly to condition the populace to accepting the Nanny State. If they can rake in a few bucks on it so much the better.
Could be.
a couple decades ago "they" decided that in my county mostly in the downtown area there was too much carbon dioxide and magically, it was because of the evil cars...
so they decided they needed to have the people in the downtown area get car inspections every year or so...
but that wasn't going to bring enough money in to make the program sustainable...
so they did a "study" and determined that all of us living even 20 miles from downtown had to get inspections too, and pay for them, because afterall we go downtown too, even if that's a lie...
Govt statists will do EVERYTHING possible to expand their tax base even with out one scintilla of proof or reason...