[Myrddin]

The "oil crisis" arrived just after I got my driver's license for a car. I had my motorcycle learner's permit at age 15 1/2 and that was sufficient to get me where I needed to go. As the "crisis" arrived, the freeways posted 65 MPH or 70 MPH were dropped to 55 MPH to "save gas". As it got worse, lines formed at filling stations and an "odd"/"even" gimmick around the license plate numbers was instituted to reduce the number of people in line.

At the time, it was popular to say a location was "freeway minutes" away on the assumption of an average 60 MPH (1 mile per minute). The 55 MPH limit certainly goobered up that practice.

[MrLucky1966]

The "oil crisis" arrived just after I got my driver's license for a car. I had my motorcycle learner's permit at age 15 1/2 and that was sufficient to get me where I needed to go. As the "crisis" arrived, the freeways posted 65 MPH or 70 MPH were dropped to 55 MPH to "save gas". As it got worse, lines formed at filling stations and an "odd"/"even" gimmick around the license plate numbers was instituted to reduce the number of people in line.

I remember that in 1979, I missed almost all the first week of school, 7th grade because of it. I spend a weekend over my paternal grandmother's place. My cousins got to go home but I was stranded, Mom needed gas to go to work So it turned out to be a little over a week. Still had a good time though, we went to Pittsburgh on the bus and rode the streetcars, worked in the garden, etc. Our car had a license plate 52471K so I guess Mom was odd since the last number was a 1.

[Texas resident]

I had a job with a rental car company then. My job was to sit in gas lines all day. On odd/even days, we would swap license plates.