Fun with gasoline (long)

[zzapp the witch]

Praise be to FSM for letting me be born in one of the last civilized states that doesn't make me pump my own gas!

[Crosshair]

Can anyone give me a good reason for a state to not let you pump your own gas? Do cars there have multiple holes in the side that you can add various liquids to, or is it something else?

[Kiwi]

The first time I stopped for gas by myself in Canada it took 20 minutes....there was no line...asking for 30 bucks petrol just ended with quizzial looks....thats what ive called it my whole life!

The pumps are different here, you have to prepay (didnt know that) and most of the places are self serve

you have to pay MORE for full serve

there are FOUR octane levels!!! and they are all different to what im used to (my local petrol station had 91 and 96 octane) they have 87, 89, 91 and 94 in canada....

the locks on the pumps dont work so you have to hold them on (didnt know that) so the actual filling sounded like this, squeeze...flow..cachink...squeeze...flow...cachink ....rinse repeat

and theres the lever you have to flip up on the pump to activate the gas after you pick up the nozzle (didnt know that one either!)

3 trips inside for instructions, the guy finally came out as I figured it out.... and I have ALWAYS pumped my own gas in NZ and never ever had a problem.

oh boy did I feel like a right idiot! I never thought I would be stumped by a flippin gas tank!

[Barefootgirl]

I hadn't seen a full service petrol station for about twenty-five years until I moved to the town in which I now live. Where I grew up, ALL petrol stations are self-serve. Bedfordshire appears to have a peculiar attachment to full service pumps - there is one in my town, one in the village on the way to work and several others (usually tiny rural stations) dotted around the county.

[gregmaddux17]

My now-DH had a similar problem on a trip to Oregon. He still thinks it's a bit ridiculous to outlaw self-serve gas (he grew up in California).

I grew up in Oregon. On my first out-of-state trip as driver, I was soloing. Not very far over the Washington border, I needed gas. Stopped, then stared at the instructions on the pump attempting to make sense of same. Another customer noticed the Oregon plates and the bewildered expression, came over, and showed me how to work the pump. I was very glad to have his help.

I don't have a problem with having someone pump my own gas. The only problem I have run into has been the overfilling of my tank but otherwise I don't mind it.

[protege]

awwwww home...Crest that is..and Mahwah and Cape May

Ah, Wildwood. I don't hang out there very much--too crowded, too much riffraff on the beaches. Beach tag fees over at Cape May tend to keep that out After vacationing in Cape May for 30 years...I consider myself a local You name the restaurant we've probably eaten there--the Ugly Mug, Lobster House, Mad Batter... We've also managed to stay in most of the houses on Jackson Street...and I remember when there was a sailboat parked in the yard of the first house. That boat was a long-running joke on that street. The owner bought it to restore, but after sitting there 25 years, it was finally scrapped last year. Now the street looks odd without it

Getting back on topic here, there aren't many full-service stations left in SW PA. Most are now self-serve.

[Becks]

I don't have a problem with having someone pump my own gas.

Sometimes it's nice to have someone else pump the gas, but there are many times where I could have pulled in, pumped the gas, paid and left in the time it took for the attendant to actually acknowledge my presence.

[Jester]

Wow, I've never driven in any state besides Maryland, Delaware, or Virginia...

Whenever we travel to CA, WA or BC (only places I've taken road trips so far...

I've got to tell you, it is entertaining to watch people drive and pump gas around the country. I myself have driven in (deep breath)...AZ, AR, AL, CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, and Mexico. (And also a very brief one mile foray into southern UT, just to say I had been there!) And wherever I went, there were always people who had issues with pumping gas, or driving laws, or whatever. And there are certain conclusions I have drawn:

1. Los Angeles has the worst traffic.
2. Residents of many cities are convinced that they have the worst traffic. But if they are not Los Angeles, they are wrong. (Miami may have a decent claim on #2, to be honest.)
3. The craziest roads are in Boston. Seven way intersections?
4. Ditto on the craziest drivers.
5. Any place that has a lot of people from other places makes for interesting driving, as there is no one "style."
6. To quote the mighty mighty George Carlin, "New Jersey deserves the title, Tollbooth Capital of the United States of America!"
7. Be careful driving in the little sliver of WV that sticks up between PA and OH. It is Speed Trap Central.
8. Do NOT make a U-turn in Clarksville, TN, if you happen to have out of state plates. Trust me on this one.
9. Having dark-tinted windows when your vehicle is registered in a state that allows dark-tinted windows but you are driving in a state that does not is EXTRAORDINARILY entertaining, for both you and the cops that follow you for five blocks before realizing there is nothing they can do.
10. Stop signs are viewed as "suggestions" pretty much everywhere. This became painfully clear in New Orleans.
11. Bad accidents can freak out even the cops.
12. People who drive mini-vans, as a group, have the heaviest right feet of the entire population.
13. Truck drivers (as in 18 wheelers), as a group, are by far the best drivers. Especially at night.
14. Florida tollbooth workers are 10 times friendlier than New Jersey tollbooth workers.
15. Oregon gas station attendants are 100 times friendlier than New Jersey gas station attendants.
16. People who live in "nice weather" areas drive a lot worse in bad weather situations than do people who live in "bad weather" areas.
17. It is very entertaining, but often dangerous, to be around when someone who has no experience with a "suicide lane" attempts to use one for the first time.
18. Everyone stops or slows down to look at accidents. Everyone. No matter how minor.
19. Fog in the Gulf Coast region can be some of the most dangerous driving conditions anywhere.
20. Jumper cables are great, but the two most useful tools on the road are a cellphone and a AAA card (or membership in some other roadside assistance program).

[DesignFox]

Can anyone give me a good reason for a state to not let you pump your own gas? Do cars there have multiple holes in the side that you can add various liquids to, or is it something else?

Yea, Jersey has its own brand of driver... someone mentioned in another post, something about not letting people who realize they "live in fucking New Jersey" handle flammable liquids!

I really don't know why it is illegal...in only two states in the country...

Also, when I have had to pump my own gas, I've discovered it really isn't hard. Why do other people have a hard time doing this? And if you are having problems, what is the point in being rude...? I wouldn't have helped the woman in the first story either.

[Misanthropical]

Get back under the couch where you belong!

Yes, she was that rude, but I found most people in the part of Oregon I was in where very rude.

Of course, I'm so old that I remember where a person came out, filled your tank, checked your oil and washed the windows.

She actually asked you "what the hell" you were doing? That's pretty rude.

I had the same experience a few years ago coming back from Wildwood after our first vacation there in years, except the guy wasn't rude about it. Being a vacation spot, they probably get all kinds of people from different states who don't know that it's illegal in NJ to pump your own gas.

[trunks2k]

**Rant on**

I can't stand states where you can't fill up your own gas. It causes nothing but problems. Most of the time, in the time it takes the gas attendent to come over to my car, take my payment, fill up my tank, come back over, put everything away, and give me a reciept I could have filled up my own tank several times over. Just let me do it myself damnit, I don't need you to do it for me. All it does is mean I have to spend an extra couple pennies on gas.

**Rant off**

[KuzcoLlama]

1. Los Angeles has the worst traffic.
2. Residents of many cities are convinced that they have the worst traffic. But if they are not Los Angeles, they are wrong. (Miami may have a decent claim on #2, to be honest.)

Yes yes yes a thousand times yes!

I learned in my public planning class that there was an offer to enhance and build more public transportation to lessen the traffic in CA many years ago. The car companies did not like this, and they said, "To lessen the traffic, build more freeways!"

>.< And now we're paying for it.

(P.S. any true SoCal person knows you never get on the 405 at 4:05pm.)

[Millahtyme1983]

3. The craziest roads are in Boston. Seven way intersections?
4. Ditto on the craziest drivers.

I can't agree more. I work at a store that's just barely in Boston so the roads aren't that bad, but many times I will need to pick up something from another store that is in the heart of the city and even after having done it many times i still sometimes get confused expecially if there is construction.

[Greenday]

Pumping gas isn't freaking rocket science. I'm from New Jersey and it's pretty freaking easy. Most places, you can just swipe your credit card, put in how much you want, put the nozzle in, start it and then it automatically fills to that amount. How stupid do you have to be? It's so easy, even a caveman could do it.

[trunks2k]

. How stupid do you have to be? It's so easy, even a caveman could do it.

Hey now, no reason to go insulting the cavemen. They learned to walk upright and made fire!