Interstate Rest Area Commercialization

[Brandon]

I think that if we allow commercial operators at rest areas, they should have to meet a minimum standard of service. (security, food and beverage above vending machine quality, etc.) They should also be required to provide certain amenities at no cost. (access to bathrooms, water, a minimum parking time, picnic area) It could work as a public/private agreement like airports, train stations. Here in Louisiana only about 10 interstate rest areas remain, including the welcome centers.

Mark

In other words, little different than what we already do for toll road service areas.  They have a minimum standard for service, security is provided by the state police troop patrolling the toll road, and food/beverage is usually a well-known brand (i.e. McDonald's, Burger King, etc).  Picnic areas, washrooms, etc, are provided as a no-cost area of the service area.

As I said before, we already have a model for commercializing the rest areas, it's not a big leap to use it.

[roadman65]

I have always wanted a post like this, and this is what I have been thinking about for years.  I lived in New Jersey for most of my young life and always traveled I-78 for commuting and because its in the area to travel.  If you are not familiar with it, you will know that Eastbound from its western terminus to its eastern terminus there is no full service rest areas whatsoever!  You have only a parking area near Bloomsbury, NJ and who knows if PennDOT will ever build the rest area near Straustown, PA in Berks County, PA that has had stubs for it east of PA 183 added when that particular highway was brought to interstate standards.

Another thing is the fact in New Jersey there are few interchanges  on I-78 with full services at them.  I do not even think there are any McDonald's at any interchange either.  Only four interchanges with hotels and one of them is around Newark Airport that charges $80 and up for a bed.  US 22 is no help except for the Red Bull Inn at Somerville, that I think now is closed!  Plus most of the family friendly motels have been torn down to be strip malls or if they are still standing are Indian owned roach motels!

I think that something like the MDSHA has done in Baltimore north of the Fort McHenry and Harbor Tunnels  on I-95 and I-895 SB with a full service travel plaza would work well on many interstates, especially in the Mid Atlantic and New England regions.  Even, on I-80 in New Jersey one rest area near Dover was closed to automobiles recently and one time I needed to go to the restroom having great difficulty finding an off interstate facility.  Even the Howard Johnson in Rockaway, where you would figure that hotel lobbies have restrooms open to anyone, had its bathrooms closed to non guests and a motel type lobby spite the chain name.  Then the gas stations are all manned cause of New Jersey and Oregon not having self serve stations cause the needed attendants  at the stations I stopped at to be idiots about non employees wanting to use their rest rooms not even available for paying customers.

Commercializing is definetely fine by me.  Putting up Logo signs on the GSP is even  something that should be done as well!  The NJ Turnpike Authority is not tourist friendly on the Parkway at all!

[mcdonaat]

I think that if we allow commercial operators at rest areas, they should have to meet a minimum standard of service. (security, food and beverage above vending machine quality, etc.) They should also be required to provide certain amenities at no cost. (access to bathrooms, water, a minimum parking time, picnic area) It could work as a public/private agreement like airports, train stations. Here in Louisiana only about 10 interstate rest areas remain, including the welcome centers.

Mark

I feel that, in a state like Louisiana, leaving rest areas open should be a requirement. It's a place for truckers to pull over and sleep instead of along exit ramps, and it gives mom and pop a place to stretch their legs. Commercialize it if you want, but the stretch of Interstate between Natchitoches and Alexandria (49) is dead, and two rest areas were planned, but scrapped.

[Alps]

Too lazy to look upthread or research farther at this time, but do the feds require that proceeds from the vending machines at interstate rest areas go to the blind?

No matter how lazy, the forum has a convenient search function at the upper right. Type "blind" while you're reading this thread and it will return any posts containing the word. No excuse.

[J N Winkler]

No matter how lazy, the forum has a convenient search function at the upper right. Type "blind" while you're reading this thread and it will return any posts containing the word. No excuse.

No, it won't.  There might be no excuse if that were actually true, but I just tried {Fomento} and it returned no hits, although a Google search for {AARoads forum Fomento} returns multiple hits, the first and most relevant of which is a thread I started in July 2011.

In short, search on this forum is borked.

I have no experience with SMF, but my recollection (from peripheral involvement in configuring search for a phpBB forum) is that a search table has to be compiled in the first instance and then updated periodically in order for search to be effective.

[NE2]

If you search from within this thread, it only finds matches in the thread. You have to go to the main forum page to search all topics.

[hbelkins]

Too lazy to look upthread or research farther at this time, but do the feds require that proceeds from the vending machines at interstate rest areas go to the blind?

No matter how lazy, the forum has a convenient search function at the upper right. Type "blind" while you're reading this thread and it will return any posts containing the word. No excuse.

I was thinking more of doing a Google search, rather than searching the forum.

How would a blind person search this forum, anyway? Sorry, but I had to ask... 

[agentsteel53]

How would a blind person search this forum, anyway? Sorry, but I had to ask... 

screen reader.  this isn't a particularly graphics-intensive forum, so I can imagine a blind person using it quite well.

though, the topic of discussion may be closed to that person, alas!

[cpzilliacus]

http://www.csnews.com/top-story-nacs_launches_lobbying_effort_against_rest_area_commercialization-59036.html

Here's an article about legislation that was introduced to allow commercialization of rest areas, and its possible detrimental effect on businesses along the interchanges.

I don't see much detrimental impact on businesses at the interchanges.  Motorists will still be free to stop at those if they so choose.  Consider that even along old-line toll roads with service plazas, there's usually some amount of motorist-oriented commercial activity at the interchanges.

What does everyone think?  On one hand, I see more and more states cutting back hours at rest areas or closing them entirely because there is no source of money...people don't pay to use them.  Having commercially viable rest areas would hopefully reverse this trend.  On the other hand, they do have a point about the phenominon of people not being willing to exit in search of services, therefore not only decreasing business activity at off-interstate facilities and driving more traffic to the on-highway facilities, which in turn drives up the prices because of less competition.  It made sense in the era of ticket-system toll roads which required lining up at a toll to pay to exit, and then lining up again to get a ticket on entry, but in this era of electronic toll collection where there is essentially little time penalty for exiting, the service areas on roads like the NJ Turnpike or PA Turnpike seem less appealing.  What the study really should have done is look at the trends on roads with both service areas and free ability to exit/enter along with logo signs at interchanges.  An example would be I-95 in Connecticut.  In NJ, the off-interstate businesses still suffer from an artificial disadvantage since the turnpike does not permit food or gas logo signs, only lodging, whereas there is nothing to suggest that states allowing commercialization of rest areas will pull all of their logo signs for off-interstate food and gas businesses.

I have no problem with Interstate rest areas being converted to turnpike-style service plazas.  Service plazas are pretty common in Canada (in particular, along the "free" Highway 401 in Ontario) and in many EU nations along their "free" motorways.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this.  I generally avoid stopping at rest areas after dark because of the lack of visible "official presense" of DOT employees or police.  So if a state wants to shut down rest areas at night, I'm all for allowing them to do that, since I'd prefer a truck stop.  I might be more willing to stop at a commercialized rest area after dark as there would be actual people working there that would look out for the safety of their customers.

I have stopped at rest areas on "free" roads even late at night, and (fortunately) never had a problem, though I pay attention to my surroundings.

There would certainly be a financial incentive for a private entity holding a service plaza lease to keep it clean and free of criminal activity.

However, I typically prefer off-interstate facilities during the day as well when I need food or gas, since they have greater vatriety and better prices than service areas.  While I like the idea of a state keeping rest areas open during the day for  quick breaks, I'd rather the state not tinker with the availability of off-interstate businesses by giving ones located in a rest area an "advantage" over those not in the rest area. Thoughts?

I don't think this will lead to the demise of off-road dining and fueling opportunities. 

[Beeper1]

To resurrect this topic...

NH is in the process of turning the Rest Areas on I-93/Everett Turnpike in Hooksett into full Service Plazas.  These had rest rooms, vending, and state liquor stores since they were first built in the 70s.  The new facility will have a gas, a full food court and tourist gift shop/info center, and a new larger liquor store.  The work is being paid for by the developer that got the contract, and in a unique move, the contract was awarded to a local NH company that will have only local NH-based food options instead of national chain places.   Work started last summer and the new facilities are scheduled to be ready to open by summer 2015.

[roadman]

Always liked the irony in the side by side placement of "Safety Rest Area" and "State Liquor Store" at those NH Hooksett plazas.

[Henry]

Perhaps naming rights to rest areas might not be too far behind? (They've already done this at sports venues and concert pavilions, so why not those service areas off the Interstate?)