New Jersey starts odd-even gas rationing in 12 counties at noon on Saturday.

[randomness]

From The Star-Ledger:

[R]ationing will take place in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

According to the order, all retail gasoline dealers are required to sell fuel for use in a passenger vehicle according to the last number appearing on a vehicle's license plate.

Vehicles with license plates, the last number of which is an odd number, can fill up at stations in these counties only on odd-numbered days of the month, the order said.

Vehicles with license plates, the last number of which is an even number, can fill up only on even-numbered days.

Zero is considered an even number.

The order does not apply to the purchase of fuel by individuals with gas canisters. Walk-ups are still permitted.

All license plates not displaying a number, such as vanity plates, are considered odd, and should fill up on odd numbered days of the month, the order said.

Comments

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

fascinating. It's unclear to me why this would have any overall effect on the average queue length at a gas station. Can anyone explain?

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's intended to reduce length as much as prevent possible unrest in the queues and prevent panic buying, by imposing additional order on the system. But here's how it _might_ work....

It should reduce the queue to 60-75% of previous length the first day it's in effect, as now only 50% of vehicles are eligible on that day, whereas the day before the rule everyone nearby who has a vehicle to fuel up has been waiting in line. (But some people may show up who had previously given up.) If you can get the queues somewhat shorter, fewer people rush to get in that queue, because they have less of an expectation that the fuel will run out before they get there. Hopefully the queues will also go a little faster with the imposition of more of a system and the presence of police officers? I wonder if this was also intended for the safety of the station attendants-- NJ is all full serve, you cannot pump your own gas in NJ.

The second day it should also nearly halve the queue relative to before the rule, as the other 50% of vehicles show up. If they can fill most tanks these first few days, without running out of gasoline, they will have gotten more households fuel, reducing the length of future queues even more.

The third day, hopefully a lot of people who have filled up on the first day won't need to be back yet, and the queues will be even smaller. But I think it's a rationing and panic buying prevention measure more than a queue shortening measure, now that I've worked out this hypothetical.

Oh, and it may be set up to make sure that more walk-up customers (not subject to the license plate number restriction) get through the line each day, to eventually reduce the number of people standing next to those lines of cars, in the cold and at risk for being hit.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

In practice, when it was tried back in the Carter administration, it made queues much worse.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Most of what I remember about that was fraud via license-plate switching.

I was too young to drive, though.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

I blame the hoarders, Oblomovists and rootless cosmopolitans.

Seriously, though, it's a policy that accomplishes exactly nothing except very conspicuous Doing Something on the part of the governor.