Many New Zealanders will remember the Carless Days scheme of 1979.

Introduced by the Muldoon government, carless days sought to combat the second oil shock, although they did little to reduce petrol use, and were scrapped in May 1980. Under the legislation, all owners of vehicles under 4,400 pounds were required to refrain from using their car on a nominated day of the week. Each car displayed a sticker on the window which indicated the selected day; Thursdays were the most popular day. Infringements were punishable by a hefty fine.

Exemptions were possible if the vehicle was needed for urgent business, and a black market for exemption stickers emerged, as did forgeries. This made enforcement difficult. Households able to run two cars had a distinct advantage over others as they could simply choose different carless days for each vehicle. Other efforts were made to restrict petrol use in the late 1970s including reducing the open-road speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h and restricting the hours that petrol could be sold at service stations and garages.

In the end, carless days legislation was in place for less than a year, and produced a very small drop in petrol use. The ban on weekend petrol sales only lasted for 18 months.

The newspaper clippings above demonstrate public sentiment towards carless days well - it was believed to be pointless, and inconvenient to most. The clippings are from the Sunday News edition published 3 February 1980, and are a part of a larger scrapbook of newspaper clippings relating to the carless days scheme.

Archives Reference: AAME W334 3/ MR 4/19 (R1963315) www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=1963315

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