


New Jersey is now the only state that prohibits self-serve gasoline after Oregon lifted its 72-year-old ban.
Oregon’s Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill on Friday which allows gas buyers to choose between using an attendant or doing it on their own.
This leaves the Garden State — which enacted its ban in 1949 — as the only state to force residents to forgo pumping themselves.
“We’re not going to conform, we’re New Jersey,” local driver Leah Barsky told ABC6 Philadelphia. “We’re not going to pump our own gas, no.”
Some even visit New Jersey to fill up their tanks.
“I am an immigrant in the US. I’ve been here 22 years, and my first cultural shock was to have to pump my own gas because I live in Pennsylvania,” Liliana Wardle told the outlet.
In 1949, the New Jersey legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which cited safety concerns as the reason its residents shouldn’t pump their own gas.
“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 act states.
However, there are Jersey residents who think it’s time to conform.
“New Jersey needs to come up with the times,” Camden resident Azhena Kee lamented. “Join the rest of the states, please.”