Carless days: Rob Muldoon, coloured stickers and Kiwi cunning
Thursday, 12 March 2026
Kevin Norquay is a senior writer for The Post and Sunday Star-Times.
OPINION: Iran and the oil crisis have raised the spectre of carless days ‒ one best left well buried, as it was a should-never-be-repeated, epic social and economic failure.
New Zealand is highly exposed to global oil shocks. We import refined fuel and depend on shipping lanes and international markets.
In 1979 the trigger was the Iranian revolution, which cut global supply and left New Zealand receiving roughly 10-15% less oil than usual.
And here we are again; conflicts in the Middle East, disruptions to shipping and living in a country overwhelmingly tethered to petrol and diesel. (Stop looking so smug, EV-owning readers.)
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We now have an “insurance policy” that did not exist in 1979; International Energy Agency member countries hold emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net imports.
But if a supply shock did hit ‒ not just high prices but no oil ‒ the Government could again face the dilemma of whether to ration fuel, or restrict how people use it.
Even this Government is unlikely to come up with such a premium octane bad idea as carless days, a system with as many holes in it as a petrol can shattered with shotgun pellets.
Carless days are now highlighted as an example of unintended policy consequences.
Lest it seem I remain bitter about it 46 years on, here’s the disclaimer: I did not own a car in 1979 or 1980, so for me every day was a carless day.
My journeys were by a Wellington bus driven by someone with such a heavy brake foot that those clinging to the strap for standing passengers risked shoulder dislocation.
Carless days might have been a laughable policy fail, but they introduced a level of Kiwi ingenuity perhaps not seen again until “Laser Kiwi” popped up in 2015 as an option for a new national flag.
Instead of rationing petrol, Rob Muldoon’s government in 1979 went, “I know, let’s make cars stay home one day a week”.
And so cars had one of seven different coloured windscreen stickers banning them for one day in the week. Thursday was the most common choice.
Stickers were symbols of Muldoon-era state control, and like the days of Covid there was rebellion and social mayhem.
Bugger all gas was saved; use dropped by about 3% as people opted to buy a cheap backup car, seek exemptions and swap cars. Far from days being carless, the number of cars increased.
If you were a two-car family, you were unaffected. Not so if you could afford only one car.
Essential workers got exemptions ‒ and the joke was everyone in New Zealand suddenly became essential (even journalists, I’ll have you know).
By the end, about 45% of vehicles had exemptions. Only 3136 prosecutions occurred from July 1979 until May 1980, with 5-10% of drivers deciding the risk was worth it.
Carless day stickers could be peeled off, swapped between cars or copied with a realistic replica. Motorbikes, commercial vehicles and service vehicles weren’t covered.
First prosecuted was a Christchurch man who went to a party and fell asleep in his parked car, waking up on his carless day and driving home.
Apparently “I was asleep when it started!” was not a sufficient defence.
But let’s look at the positives in our favour these days; if our cars are all conked out or we can’t afford to start them, there are cycle lanes everywhere.
If we don’t have a bike or legs capable of forward propulsion, we still have the bonus of not needing to drive through all those bloody road cones, and traffic jams will fade away (and we always moan about those).
Walking and cycling are good for cardiovascular health, effectively lowering blood pressure and strengthening the heart.
And they are good for your mental health as well - so to channel the Rolling Stones, life without gas would be a gas, gas, gas.
See you all on a footpath some time soon.