For the first time in more than seven decades, drivers in Oregon are allowed to pump their own gas.

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[–] 100 points 3 years ago* (4 children)

I can't see myself headed back to Oregon any time soon, but good. It was so frustrating trying to get gas behind a line of twenty five cars being "served" by a single slack jawed yokel taking smoke breaks between each car and God help you if you needed gas at night when everybody was closed.

New Jersey gas attendants can be surly, but my experiences driving there at least moved the cars through getting gas efficiently.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    As someone from NJ I agree 100% with surly. Also you can get someone weird or the guy who just wants to talk the entire time. I really do hope this changes one day.

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    [–] 83 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    There are some bizarre and pointless laws in this country.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    The way I heard it, if the only people pumping gas were employees, the company didn't have to pay as much liability insurance.

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  • [–] 32 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Then why make it a law? Gas stations would all choose to have full service only if it was cheaper.

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  • [–] 37 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    It's a law specifically so that these jobs exist. It has nothing to do with liability insurance. Rather, one guy was able to lower his prices by having people pump their own gas and other gas stations didn't like that

    Reingold decided to offer the consumer a choice by opening up a 24-pump gas station on Route 17 in Hackensack. He offered gas at 18.9 cents a gallon. The only requirement was that drivers pump it themselves. They didn't mind. They lined up for blocks.

    "The other gas station operators didn't like the competition. Someone tried shooting up Reingold's station. But he installed bulletproof glass, so the retailers looked for a softer target - the Statehouse. The Gasoline Retailers Association prevailed upon its pals in the Legislature to push through a bill banning self-serve gas. The pretext was safety, but the Hackensack fire chief had already told all who would listen that Rein- gold's operation was perfectly safe.

    https://www.nj.com/opinion/2014/02/the_real_reason_self-service_gas_was_banned_in_nj_corruption_not_safety.html

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    [–] 67 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    The state's 72-year ban on self-service pumps was due in large part to safety concerns for drivers. A state law cited "increased risk of crime and the increased risk of personal injury resulting from slipping on slick surfaces."

    What an abomination of an excuse, and I live here.

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    [–] 59 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    That must’ve been one of the most useless regulations. Is that just about jobs? I can’t really imagine it being a security risk issue or any other reason

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  • [–] 90 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, jobs. And yeah, it was fucking stupid. Imagine outlawing opening the front door to any business, so that every business would have to hire greeters to generate jobs. Same same.

    It's just welfare, but in its cruelest possible form. If we're going to require someone to piss 8 hours of their day away contributing nothing to society (worse than nothing in practice... gassing up in Oregon took FOREVER cuz you'd be stuck waiting for an attendant to serve a backup of 15 cars) just so that person can collect a pay check... why not just give them the pay check with no strings attached? Then they can use that time to improve themselves, or at the very least, not spend their waking hours inhaling gasoline fumes and ruining their knees and such.

    Protect people, not jobs. Robots and AI are replacing most of us soon anyway: mandating busywork is NOT the solution to getting food on everyone's table.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago

    So true. And as a bonus, a person receiving a universal basic income can also contribute by getting a useful job, even if just for a few hours a week.

    I would rather see someone doing art part time hours than having them make gas lines worse for full time.

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  • [–] 38 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Did that also apply to electric cars? Or were you allowed to plug it in yourself

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  • [–] 29 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Don’t worry guys. Whole continents manage to pump their own gas without Major issues. I’m sure you will manage it too 😉

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    [–] 26 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Time for me and my male model homies to finally have that gasoline fight we've been putting off forever.

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    [–] 22 points 3 years ago (27 children)

    Clearly no Oregonians in this thread. Everyone I’ve met in Oregon loves that they don’t have to pump their own gas.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago* (8 children)

    If enough people love it, then full service pumps will still hang around as an option. Personally as someone who lived in Minneapolis for 20 years, full service pumps would have been fucking amazing in the winter, but mandating them by law is just stupid.

    The fact that full service doesn't exist even in the frozen tundra of MN leads me to believe very few people are actually willing to pay extra for it.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    Serious question: why? It seems worse in every way.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    I don't understand anyone who says there's long waits, because I never have that problem, even when it's crowded. Conversely, when I lived in the midwest, I would have to wait for people to finish taking their sweet time paying inside before I could get to the pump.

    Here we have an attendant who handles the pump and most people don't even get out of their car. They just drive away when it's done.

    Anyhow, it's not a big deal to me either way. I don't mind that there's people being paid for that, because our gas prices don't seem higher for it compared to our neighbors. But I also wouldn't terribly mind getting out and pumping it myself either

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    [+] 18 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
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