Right after Sandy, NJ implemented odd/even day gas rationing (you can fill up on even days if your number plate ends in an even digit and vise versa) to try to alleviate the 2 hour plus waits for gar. NYC implemented the same rationing about 10 days later.
Both NJ and NYC said they saw immediate reduction in line length. And, from personal experience, I thought I noticed the same thing.
The question is WHY?
This is not really rationing, you are not selling less gas, you are just regulating who buys and when. Presumably, over a two day period, the same number of cars would have purchased the same amount of gas with or without regulation.
I can see that a few percentage of drivers might not buy gas under the ‘rationing’ as they realized that it’s the wrong day for their car. However, I’d have thought that would easily be out-weighted by folk seeing a shorter line and filling, who otherwise might have waited for another time.