And then there was just one. A law in Oregon lifting the ban on motorists pumping their own gas went into effect on Friday, leaving New Jersey as the only of the 50 states that still ban it.
New Jersey’s ban on pumping gas dates all the way back to 1949 when the Legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which cited safety concerns for prohibiting drivers from filling their own tanks.
“Because of the fire hazards directly associated with dispensing fuel, it is in the public interest that gasoline station operators have the control needed over that activity to ensure compliance with appropriate safety procedures,” the New Jersey law states.
Being that fuel dispensing is now a lot safer than it was 75 years ago, there has been an ongoing push to allow New Jerseyans to pump their own gas, but little headway has been made in the matter.
The argument to keep it is now that lifting the ban would leave many gas station attendants out of jobs, and besides, many in New Jersey are quite content with someone else pumping gas for them – especially on brutally hot or cold days.
Keep it the way it is. I really enjoy the fact that someone else pumps my guess and I don’t have to get out of the car on a freezing cold or boiling hot day to do it and get my hands filthy full of bacteria from the hundred people before me who pumped their own gas.
thats not a reason to outlaw pumping your own gas. There would still be full service gas stations for those who prefer it like there are in New York
Yes, they’re always some pumps with attendants all the rest you can pump yourself. Now with the Advent of credit card payment it is so simple and easy to just pull up swipe your card pump your gas and you’re on your way I don’t have to wait 5 minutes for an attendant to come around to start and then again when it’s finished waiting for him to come and put it back in. I’m always in a rush and this would save a lot of time. Additionally the gas stations would be open later because they don’t have to have a full-time attendant there