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Comment by causi | Hacker News Reader

Even under the hypothetical scenario that pumping your own gas is dangerous, the prohibition would still do more harm than good: instead of learning to pump your gas as a matter of course, Oregonians would not learn it growing up and then suddenly have to do it when they take an out-of-state trip.

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You know you’re an Oregonian when you’re out-of-state trying to figure out how to put gas in your rental car and the clerk at the gas station starts yelling “What are you doing??” over the P.A.

I was so confused when one day at a gas station in Vegas a group of college aged girls flagged me over and asked if I could help them fill their car. They never had before as they were from Jersey and couldnt figure out how to open the gas door. I mean in all honesty it was a push door style where you pushed and it popped open so thats a little tricky but I was amused i still had to walk them through the entire process.

And the same thing the other way around. Out-of-stater goes to Oregon, gets out to try and pump gas.

“What are you doing??”

"You've never actually set foot in a gas station, have you?" [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl_Qyk9DSUw

This is exactly what happens to every Oregonian. For most it's taking a car to college out of state.

I grew up in NJ and had to learn on the fly at college.

At the risk of sounding a bit mean, it’s very easy to figure out. Most gas stations have screens that say “insert card, select gas”.

I don’t understand how anyone struggles with that.

One of the more confusing parts is probably the variety of ways you can flip up a pump handle cradle to start it up.

I haven't used a pump like that in years. All of the ones I've used recently have just one handle that you grab and start pumping after selecting the fuel you want.

I think the vast majority of those have been replaced already.

Seriously. The POS walks you through each step. There's a button to call an attendant for help, if you don't want to walk inside and ask how to pump your gas. Or you could stand there and watch other customers do it.

I'm having a memory of trying to pump the gas for my dad when I was a kid. I got confused about what to do, so after completely filling up, I ended up swiping the credit card again after finishing the purchase, leaving the machine open to being charged again. My dad stood there and yelled at me, and the whole time I thought, I don't know what I did, so when he's done yelling I'll just gonna go ask the attendant.

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