Car-less days

The New Zealand car-less days scheme, designed in response to a rapid decline in the New Zealand economy, ran for less than a year from 1979 to 1980, but failed due to avoidance and concerns about its impracticality. My mother had a sticker on her old VW, and was annoyed by the efforts many people went to to get around the scheme. In any case it would have been difficult to enforce on Waiheke Island, our home at the time, because there were no police officers permanently stationed on the island!

Quoted below is the official information pamphlet for the scheme:


Information for all owners of petrol-fuelled vehicles

Car-less days stickers are printed in seven different colours, one for each day of the week, and have the day printed across them.

You must choose a day, obtain the correct sticker for that day from a Post Office by entering your selected day at the base of your motor re-licensing form, and fix it to your windscreen by 1 July 1979. It will be an offence NOT to display your car-less day sticker from this date.

Place your car-less day sticker on your windscreen alongside your motor licence sticker.

You may change your chosen car-less day only if:

1. Your sticker has been lost, stolen or destroyed.

2. You have bought a new or used car.

3. You can convince the Secretary of Energy that your chosen car-less day will cause you extreme hardship.

If you wish to change your car-less day for any of the above reasons, ask the nearest Post Office for an 'Energy 1' application form.

ON THE DAY YOU HAVE CHOSEN, YOUR MOTOR VEHICLE WILL BE PROHIBITED BY LAW FROM BEING DRIVEN ON THE ROAD, IF AND WHEN THE GOVERNMENT ACTIVATES THE SCHEME.

Traffic officers will then be making sure that your vehicle is not driven on your chosen car-less day.

- Car-less days pamphlet, Ministry of Energy, Wellington, New Zealand, 1979, quoted in Richard Wolfe, Instructions for New Zealanders, Auckland, 2006