When you ride alone you ride with Hitler
Although gasoline rationing quickly became a fact of life on the home front during the Second World War it was tires which were first rationed, with sales temporarily suspended on December 11 1941 – the date Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States. One of the reasons for the immediate rationing of tires was the Japanese offensive in the Far East, which quickly overran large amounts of the world’s supply of rubber.
By early 1942 it was clear that tire and fuel rationing was a cause of conflict with the need for workers to increase production, particularly in areas which lacked suitable mass transit facilities, which were also subject to rationing. The solution proposed by the government was ride sharing.
Of all the commodities rationed during the war, the American public seemed to have the most difficulty accepting gasoline rationing, which restricted the use of their automobile. Pleasure driving was prohibited early in the war; anyone operating a car had to be able to present a valid reason for doing so, such as heading to and from work.
The government did not look favorably at cars which carried only the driver, and encouraged what would later become known as carpooling, presenting the argument that multiple passengers in a vehicle could pool their gasoline ration as well. This argument was never received well.
The government encouraged and helped produce propaganda linking the unauthorized use of gasoline as directly supporting America’s enemies, and tried (largely in vain) to encourage carpooling. Posters which appealed to patriotism were used, as were posters suggesting that carpooling would encourage an increase in social appeal. As it would in a later day, the public largely rejected these arguments, preferring the use of their own car on their own terms.