Is this to artificially create jobs? Why not just set a state basic income and free people up to do more meaningful things? What’s the point of having someone stand around doing what any driver can do themselves?
Don’t know about Oregon, but a law prohibiting it was passed in NJ in the late 40s. It was a safety measure. Many other states followed suit – perhaps Oregon was one. I’m pretty sure it’s safer to pump gas self service today than it was then due to automatic shut offs etc.
Not all of these are relevant (many out of control cars crashing) but a significant proportion are. My favorite is the one at around 1:00 where the car very, very slowly starts to move away, as though it’s trying to sneak off without being noticed… [ETA and don’t miss the woman right after that trying to stretch the hose around the far side of the car]
It is just an old job protection measure and nothing more. There are a few towns in Massachusetts that have it for the same reason including one near me. I don’t like getting gas when I am in them because I find full-service gas attendants to be more of a hassle than they are worth. Oddly enough, the gas isn’t generally more expensive than neighboring towns without the law. The have big convience stores to support the whole operation but I still don’t like. I am more of a self-service kind of guy.
Until this year, latch-open-devices (those ratchets on the dispenser handles that allow unattended pumping of gas) were illegal in Massachusetts. You had to stand there the whole time with a firm hand clench even during a driving snowstorm and inhumane conditions. Thankfully, somebody finally realized that people in rest of the states weren’t causing much mayhem through unattended gas pumping. The dispensers have really sensitive equipment to shut it off before you flood the lot with gas. That law was modified/repealed and I can now feel like a civilized person once again.
I secretly suspect that New Jersey and Oregon keep their antiquated laws because they like the attention of being the answer to an obscure trivia question. I encountered this specific one yet again today before I opened this thread.
They actually publish reasons for a bill to be passed, and the Oregen 1951 law for this has 17 reasons … here…
Wow, I can’t believe all that made it into the law. It’s mostly bullshit. “OMG pumping gasoline is super dangerous and it’s going to kill you and your grandmother :rolleyes:” A few token things about jobs and the disabled and OMG protect the kids too, but damn… that is one silly law.
But thanks for the cite 
I’m curious if gas pumps in 1951 were in fact different than pumps today.
Probably, eh? I’m just amused that they haven’t bothered to repeal the law in the 65 years since.
You can pump your own gas in Oregon if you’re fueling up a motorcycle.
That Oregon rationale isn’t that old. The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, so it was written (or at least updated) after that.
That was the stated rationale. The real reason was to protect a price-manipulating cartel of gas station owners from competition from a new entrant into the market named Irving Reingold. See this article.
Or at least was claimed to be.
I’ve driven - and bought fuel - in all 50 states. Three times I’ve driven away from the pumps with my filler cap off: twice in NJ, once in OR.
With the Oregon plates on my rig, I can draw out the basic Californian need to be helpful … they get really excited when I run the nozzle in through the driver’s side window …
… but I digress …
The legislature just hasn’t gotten around to fixing this yet … until recently, they only met for a couple three months every other year … hell’s bells, semi-truck speed limit is still 55 mph on our rural freeways.
Meh. The gas is usually cheaper in Oregon than adjacent states, and breathing those gas fumes isn’t cumulatively great for one’s health anyways.
I am tempted to make fun of the states of New Jersey and Oregon and their gas pump laws.
…but I live in Pennsylvania where we can only by our wine and liquor directly from the State, so…
And the pump jockeys get to breath it all day.
I’ll pump my own gas. It’ll be just as fast or faster than waiting for someone else to do it.
I live in NJ, only other places it’s true statewide. It’s partly explained by left-right politics. In very liberal states the tendency might be, as one post mentions, ‘why doesn’t the government just give people money if they don’t have jobs?’ rather than force the ‘creation’ of low value jobs. In conservative states the voters are more likely opposed to telling gas station owners how they have to run their businesses. OR and NJ are both moderately liberal states. However obviously so are a good number of other states which don’t have such a law. I think the main reason is political inertia. If there isn’t such a law, even in states where people might accept it as the govt’s job to decide such things, people aren’t up in arms to create one. But whenever it’s suggested to eliminate it in NJ, call in shows, comment threads etc are full of people saying how that’s just benefiting ‘greedy’ gas stations and putting ‘folks’ out of work etc. Yet again somehow this isn’t a huge problem in NY right next door, which is just as big govt-oriented or more as NJ is in general.
I doubt anyone seriously thinks it’s really about safety given the experience in every other state.
In comparisons of gas prices state to state you have to remember to consider gas taxes as well as other factors. Gas prices in NJ are relatively low but so is the state gas tax, and it’s a small state containing or near two different major refining hubs each with broad access to all kinds of crude oil as relative crude prices change. This can’t be directly compared to states with higher gas taxes, longer typical distances to transport finished gasoline from refineries, or refineries stuck with a certain type of crude which might become more expensive than benchmarks at various times. Also the state doesn’t have extensive state specific gasoline blending requirements like say CA.
Of course gas prices would go down in NJ if there was self service all else equal, though not dramatically.
No kidding! Those fuckers are never in any kind of hurry to get off their ass to pump your gas. When in Oregon, I just get out and start on my own, and that tends to speed them up a little bit.
Nice link to that stupid law.
We have that too here in Oregon regarding liquor … our local State-owned liquor store is run by an elderly couple, so we have to drive thirty miles if we want to buy liquor on Sunday or after 5pm … hilarious …
Some seriously reactionary laws here, prohibition didn’t work out so this is the next best thing … OTOP, we’ve pry bars and quickie saws at hand if Union Pacific even thinks of hauling coal-for-export through our State.
I like the gas prices in NJ, but do not like having to wait for someone to be free to pump the gas. They’re pretty efficient, but when they’re busy they’re busy; and when you have no choice but to sit in a car and wait a minute can seem like five and two minutes like eternity.
Being able to get out of the car and pump, no waiting, spoils me for the NJ way.