Why residents are banned from pumping their own gas in this US state

Despite every other state removing it over the past 70 years, one key part of America has stuck by a law that bans residents from pumping gas into their own cars, and many have questioned why it's still the case.

For most Americans it's part of the normal experience of owning a car that you pump your own gas when you head to the station, as countless services across the country have now implemented pay-at-pump technology to make the process more seamless.

As reported by Oregon Live, nearly half of all states in the US had a law that banned people from filling up their own vehicles in the 1960s, but within just 30 years this changed dramatically as roughly four out of every five stations now allowed people to do the work themselves.

There remains just one state left standing though in the fight against self service, as residents of New Jersey still rely on gas station workers to fill their car up - and it doesn't look like it'll be changing any time soon.

Why was the ban implemented?

While it seems like every state had their own reasons for implementing the ban on gas station self service despite arriving at the same point, New Jersey's decision making process involved some rather wild antics.

The decision was made after pressure from gas station owners, and has remained ever since 1949 (Getty Stock)

Implementing the change back in 1949, lawmakers were encouraged to opt out of the growing self service trend after businessman Irving Reingold opened the state's first gas station that let people pump their own gas, and he was able to offer a lower price as a consequence.

This understandably left his competitors rather unhappy, and they resorted to some aggressive tactics - including drive-by shootings - to intimidate Reingold into shutting shop.

Remarkably that didn't work and the businessman continued despite ongoing threats, so his rivals then joined together to implement a self service ban in New Jersey, and it has remained there ever since.

Why is New Jersey the only state left to ban self-service?

As mentioned, almost every other state across America has ditched their self service gas station bans, and until 2018 it was just New Jersey and Oregon that were holding out.

The latter decided to loosen its restrictions in 2018 before completely removing them in 2023, leaving the 'Garden State' as the sole survivor. However, it doesn't look like lawmakers will be implementing changes any time soon, as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has called attempts to do so "political suicide."

Politicians have called changing the law 'political suicide' as most drivers oppose the change (Getty Stocks)

Polls aimed at New Jersey drivers have revealed that nearly three out of every four oppose movement to lift the ban, although a slight majority would favor it if new laws made gas stations still provide the option for the traditional method.

If no alternative was available when a ban went through though, that opposition figure then returns to around 60%, meaning that it simply doesn't make sense for lawmakers to pursue changes that residents don't want.

There is the argument that allowing self service would make gas cheaper as labor costs would go down, which would definitely sway some residents, although this likely wouldn't be more than a few cents as insurance costs would increase in tandem.