9 New Jersey Myths Residents Are Sick of Correcting
No state packs more people into every square mile than New Jersey.
But many out-of-staters show up assuming it’s a flyover state compared to its New York neighbor.
Here are the myths New Jerseyans are sick of correcting.
1. Can’t Pump Your Own Gas?
New Jersey has banned self-service gas since 1949.
Outsiders assume Jersey drivers just can’t be trusted with a nozzle.
Wrong reason entirely.
The Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act cites fire risk and exposure to toxic fumes, not driver competence, as its reasoning.
Lawmakers also pointed to the roughly 10,000 attendant jobs the law keeps in place at gas stations across the state.
New Jersey became the only state left with a full ban after Oregon lifted its own ban in 2023.
Why New Jerseyans Don’t Want Pump-Your-Own
New Jersey lawmakers keep introducing bills to repeal the self-serve ban.
New Jerseyans keep telling pollsters no.
A 2026 Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found 64% of state voters want to keep full-service gas, compared with just 24% who’d switch to pumping their own.
The repeal bill has resurfaced so often in Trenton that state lawmakers have nicknamed it the “Dracula bill.”
State Sen. Jon Bramnick has said it could never see the light of day.
2. Landing in New York?
New Jersey’s own Newark Liberty International Airport sits nine miles from Manhattan, yet many travelers still say they landed in New York.
They didn’t.
The airport straddles Newark and Elizabeth, split across Essex and Union counties, New Jersey soil from the runways to the parking garages.
Travelers still walk off the jet bridge and hail a car.
Then they tell the driver to take them into Manhattan.
Some New Jerseyans have given up correcting them.
Others never will.
3. Just Like the MTV Show?
New Jersey answers for one MTV show more than for any stretch of its own coast.
Only two of the original eight “Jersey Shore” cast members, Sammi Giancola and Deena Cortese, grew up in New Jersey.
Five came from New York.
One grew up in Rhode Island.
Gov. Chris Christie called out the mismatch himself, telling a radio host the cast was mostly imports.
PolitiFact rated his claim Half True.
New Jersey’s actual beaches run 126 miles of towns that look nothing like a rerun.
4. Turnpike or Parkway, Same Road?
New Jersey runs two major toll roads, the Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway.
Out-of-state drivers often call both of them “the Turnpike,” assuming the Parkway is just a local nickname for the same highway.
They’re not the same road.
The Turnpike carries the state’s heavy freight traffic.
Its ticket-style tolls charge by distance.
The Parkway bans six-axle trucks north of Exit 105 near Tinton Falls, largely because of low overpass clearances.
The rules never match.
Punch a Turnpike address into a navigation app built for the Parkway.
A driver can end up stuck under a bridge built for sedans.
5. Smells Like That Everywhere?
New Jersey inherits its worst stereotype from one stretch of highway, the industrial corridor around Newark and Elizabeth.
That’s where Bayway Refinery sits, straddling Linden and Elizabeth along the Turnpike, its wet-gas scrubber plume visible for miles.
It’s the northernmost refinery on the entire East Coast.
Construction on it started back in 1907.
Twelve exits, tops.
New Jersey stretches across 8,723 square miles.
It’s also the most densely populated state in the country.
One corridor doesn’t speak for the whole state.
Psst! Think you can spot which of these New Jersey claims are true and which are made up? Tap each card to find out.
6. Newark’s the Capital, Right?
New Jersey’s largest city isn’t its capital, no matter how many visitors assume otherwise.
Trenton has held that title since 1790.
Not Newark.
Washington’s Revolutionary War victory at the Battle of Trenton in 1776 gave the city its standing years before lawmakers made the title official.
Newark, the state’s largest city today, has never once held it.
New Jerseyans field this mix-up constantly, usually from people picturing a skyline instead of a state map.
The Battle of Trenton line usually settles the argument.
7. Nothing but Refineries?
New Jersey earns “industrial wasteland” jokes from people who have only ever seen the Turnpike’s northern stretch.
Not the whole picture.
New Jersey’s Green Acres program has preserved more than 1.5 million acres of open space since 1961.
The Pinelands National Reserve alone covers 1.1 million acres, about 22% of the state.
New Jersey still farms roughly one-sixth of its land, growing the blueberries and tomatoes that earned it the Garden State nickname in the first place.
Green space wins.
8. Just Another Roadside Diner?
Many visitors treat a New Jersey diner as generic roadside fare, the kind of place that could have opened up in any state.
The diner itself probably came from New Jersey.
New Jersey runs roughly 450 diners, more than any other state.
NPR calls it the diner capital of the world.
The title traces back to manufacturing, not just menus.
Most of the country’s major diner-car builders once operated out of New Jersey factories, according to diner historian Michael Gabriele.
New Jersey built the diner.
Order a plate of disco fries at 2 a.m. in Paramus or Cherry Hill.
The cook behind the counter is carrying on a manufacturing legacy many customers never think about.
9. Everybody Talks the Same?
One exaggerated accent stands in for all of New Jersey whenever a movie needs a “Jersey guy.”
New Jersey splits into at least two distinct dialects.
North Jersey speech pulls from New York City English, right down to how some Newark and Jersey City residents drop their Rs.
South Jersey leans on Philadelphia English, where a submarine sandwich becomes a hoagie.
One state, two accents.
Central Jersey splits the difference entirely, blending both dialects into something linguists still argue about.
Ask a New Jerseyan to pick a side.
They’ll usually just shrug and keep talking however they always have.
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The rankings don’t flatter every state. A few results might surprise you.
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