Here's Why We Shouldn't Pump Our Own Gas in New Jersey

In case you missed it, Oregon has allowed self-serve gas stations in their state, so New Jersey is now out on an island - we are the only state where there is no self-serve gas.

Myself, I'd love to see self-serve come to New Jersey. I think - in my case - service would be faster and easier. I pull in, jump out of my car, pump the gas and I'm done. I don't have to wait for anyone, I just do it myself.

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I figured if I can do it, you can too. I figured if my 82-year-old mother could pump her case, the people of New Jersey could too.

That's what I believed That's what I thought.

Then I saw this.

It's an example of someone with little common sense having a problem while pumping her gas.

A big problem.

How could we possibly allow our citizens to pump their gas when we each know at least 5 people who would handle such an event the same way?

You sold me, girl! No self-serve gas in New Jersey is the way to go!

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.