NEW YORK – A gasoline shortage caused by superstorm Sandy forced 1970s-era rationing on New Yorkers Friday, adding a fuel-gauge obsession to their frayed nerves and dwindling patience.

“I take passenger, I look at gas. I take another passenger, I look at gas,” said New York City taxi driver Shi Shir K. Roy. “Tension all the time.”

Though rationing that allowed private motorists to fill up only every other day seemed to help with gas lines, it didn’t answer motorists’ questions about why they had been waiting for days in hourslong lines to fuel up. The confusion led some, like Angel Ventura, to panic.