TBO.com: WASHINGTON — For more than half a century, old-fashioned, no-frills highway rest stops have welcomed motorists looking for a break from the road, a bathroom or a picnic table where they can eat lunch.
But in some states, these roadside areas are disappearing.
Cash-strapped transportation agencies are shuttering the old ones to save money, or because they don’t attract enough traffic or are in such bad shape that renovating them is too costly. Or, the stops have been overtaken by tourist information centers, service plazas that take in revenue from gasoline and food sales, or commercial strips off interstate exits.
Florida, Michigan, Ohio and South Dakota are among the states that have closed traditional rest stops in the past two years. And a battle is brewing in Connecticut over a proposal to shut down all seven stops on its interstate highways to save money.
But advocates of maintaining traditional rest areas say even if motorists are offered flashier options for pit stops, the ones that sprung up as highways did are still needed for driver safety and convenience. Some view them as a tranquil, environmentally friendly alternative to crowded service plazas and commercial strips.
“Shutting them down would be the end of an era,” said Joanna Dowling, a historian who researches rest areas and runs the website RestAreaHistory.org. “Rest areas take you away from the road and the hecticness of travel and immerse you in the natural landscape.”
Some of the old rest areas are rustic and offer just the basics — two toilets, water fountains, a parking area and picnic tables. Others are spiffier and more modern, with larger bathrooms, vending machines, dog walk areas and a desk staffed by state workers who hand out maps and other tourist information. read more
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Interstate Rest Areas list.
I remember eating picnic lunches on wooden picnic tables all up and down the east coast in the 60’s. I think my brother still has the old CocaCola cooler and glass thermos my parents used.
Put a Sheetz there, problem solved.
Uh, yeah. Somewhere in the archives are politicians pleading with the voters to increase taxes, only a tiny little bit, to fund rest stops. So, what have the bureaucrats done with the money approved to pay for rest stops? Oh, that’s right. They used it to pay for health insurance benefits for gay couples. A couple mil into bike paths, solar panels, wind mills, and benefits for freshly recruited homeless druggies and alcoholics who are sure to vote democrat.
Self-driving robot cars won’t need them.
Sarc/
Closing Virginia rest stops was former governor, current senator and failed Vice Presidential candidate Timmy Kaine’s signature achievement as governor.
Democrats destroy things and punish citizens. That’s what they do.
Next governor, a republican, reopened most of them.
Rest stops are especially nice when traveling with a dog. 🐕
@Rufus.
I want a self driving RV so that I can surf IOTW while sitting on the shitter while peeling up the highway at 70 mph. I gave up on flying cars as promised in the 50s and 60s. This is the only futuristic dream I have left.
Rest stops in Ohio when I little were like the latrines in M*A*S*H.
Stinky holes in the ground with black plastic toilet seats. Mom and I hated to use them but if you gotta go ya gotta go!
If Loco were governor I would have free coffee and orange juice at every rest stop in my state.
Instead, the state money goes to pot, alcohol, and steaks for “poor people” who have two cars, a house, and three 55″ flat screens each.
Please, giant meteor of death…
Typical crap politicians. Piss on ’em.
Seen many closed down over the years for being bases of operations for prostitutes (straight and homosexual hookers) as well as narcotics (and this was well over 20/30 years ago).
In the early 70’s while passing a rest area, I heard a working gal (I presume 🙂 ) of ‘capital values,’ speaking with a dazzling urbanite trucker on the CB radio. She obviously didn’t like what he was saying about her net worth/profit ratio and she told him to, “Get off the F’n radio you F’n porch monkey!” Of course I had to ask my Pop what she meant by that remark.
Less than a year later, that rest area and many others closed and forced the working gals to the big truck stop parking lots that were beginning to come to be. This then gave evolution to the stickers for truckers who didn’t want to be bothered, to put a sticker of a lizard with a circle/slash around it (no ‘lot lizards’) on the door of their trucks.
Rest stops save lives. Lots of folks drive till they can’t see any longer, then pull into a Rest Area, crash a few hours, and continue when they’re able. Fatigue kills. Those folks would be a lethal menace without Rest Areas.
I don’t think you could pull over for a few hours at a 24 hr gas stop without waking to a cop pounding on your window.
PS, I just did a great long road trip out West (Denver-Santa Fe and a lot of surrounding area).
For looooong stretches there’s nothing for hours, no gas, no towns, no shoulders to pull over, driving as it must have been in the 1930s. Rest stops are often no more than a dirt pull off loop and a trash can.
Really made me appreciate the rest areas I take for granted back East.
That’s the local chambers of commerce begging
the states to get the travelers off the interstates
to take their money, that is all.
I used to love hitting the truck stops in the mid
west for food, best damn comfort food you could buy
for a cheap price.
Some of the nicest rest stops I’ve been in are in Wyoming. Seems the farther you get from the ghetto, the better the rest stops are.
DH and I love rest stops. They keep my car seat dry.
The absolute cleanest and nicest rest stop was in New Mexico heading from AZ to Carlsbad Caverns. Dare I say, it was actually beautiful it was so well maintained with numerous amemities and thoughtful conveniences.
Tip O’ the hat NM!
Carlsbad Caverns. Wonderful Trips. Twice.
Third Time before the Eclipse.
I think.
Virginia will now add glory holes in the male bathrooms. Just for males.
A floor drain and a cup of water: A Dearborn Outhouse.
It’s about tax money; not spending it, but not getting it. People traveling through states like Connecticut can go without spending a dollar by stopping at an interstate rest area instead of pulling into a gas station when they don’t need gas. That means the state gets nothing in tax dollars. It boils down to tax dollars lost and they’re tired of not generating revenue with free rest areas.
And no one gives a fuck about the trucker. They have to stop, by law! 11 hours driving, in the US, and it’s park it or get a big ticket time. Truck stops are jammed, rest areas are closing, no truck parking rules increasing everywhere, and the law says it’s time to park… Thanks brainless assholes!