You know those T-shirts that say “Keep Oregon weird”? They should include a drawing of a hippie (it’s always a hippie, right?) merrily pumping his or her own gas into a VW microbus.

For those not steeped in service-station lore, Oregon banned self-service gasoline in 1951, seven years before the nation’s first pump-your-own gas station opened in Omaha, Neb. The prohibition is embedded in statutes dealing with explosives, suggesting that safety was lawmakers’ primary concern six decades ago.

Opponents argued that a 1982 initiative to lift the ban would cost jobs, and would inconvenience the elderly and people with disabilities. The initiative ran into an electoral ditch, failing 58 percent to 42 percent. Oregon remains one of only two states — the other is New Jersey — that ban motorists from pumping their own gas.

So far the same arguments have not been marshaled against legislation authored by Rep. Cliff Bentz, D-Ontario, that would allow stations in counties with fewer than 40,000 residents to keep self-pay pumps turned on when no owner, operator or employee is around to serve customers.

Bentz and co-sponsor Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, say the bill is needed because businesses in remote areas can’t afford to man the pumps 24 hours a day. The bill would apply to roughly half of the state’s counties and would include the Columbia Gorge, Eastern Oregon and most coastal communities. “If you’re a tourist going into the outback of our state without a full tank of gas, you better be prepared to sleep in your car, because it’s going to be tough to find a gas station that’s open after a certain hour,” Ferrioli says.

Ferrioli emphasizes that House Bill 3011 is not likely to lead to a full repeal of the ban on self-service. That’s a pretty safe bet, since Oregonians have swatted down every attempt to overturn the ban since it was instituted 64 years ago. Opposition has been so overwhelming that state lawmakers, despite industry prodding, haven’t dared introduce a measure to overturn the ban since 2003.

With the proliferation of credit-card-reading pumps and spill-prevention mechanisms, another look at self-service gas might make sense. Most of the official reasons for the law, listed in statute, don’t stand up to scrutiny, including “Exposure to toxic fumes represents a health hazard to customers dispensing (gasoline),” which is followed by “The hazard described … (above) is heightened when the customer is pregnant.”

Then there is “Self-service dispensing at retail contributes to unemployment, particularly among young people,” a claim that might make sense if economists didn’t dismiss it as unsubstantiated, based on the experience of the vast majority of states that have self-serve.

The House has unanimously approved HB 3011, and the Senate should do the same. But there’s no evidence of widespread public support for changing Oregon’s self-service ban. It’s one of those quirks that Oregonians find endearing — and that, well, helps keep Oregon weird.