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Many government-run rest areas tend to be located in remote and rural areas where there are practically no fast food or full-service restaurants, gas stations, motels, and other traveler services nearby. The locations of rest areas are usually marked by signs on the highway; for example, a sign may read, "Next Rest Stop - 10 Kilometers".
Driving information is usually available at these locations, such as posted maps and other local information. Some rest areas have visitor information centers or highway patrol or state trooper stations with staff on duty. There might also be drinking fountains, vending machines, pay telephones, a gas station, a restaurant or a convenience store at a rest area. Texas provides Wi-Fi access at its state-owned rest areas, and several other states have either followed suit or are considering doing so. Many rest areas have picnic areas. Rest areas tend to have traveler information in the form of so-called "exit guides", which often contain very basic maps and advertisements for motels and tourist attractions.
Privatized commercial rest areas may take a form of a truck stop complete with a filling station, arcade video games and recreation center, shower facilities, and fast food restaurant, cafeteria, or food court all under one roof immediately adjacent to the freeway. Some even offer business services, such as ATMs, fax machines, office cubicles and internet access.
Some states, such as California, have laws that explicitly prohibit private retailers from occupying rest stops. The clause was immediately followed by an exception for facilities constructed prior to January 1, 1960, many of which continue to exist as explained further below.
Therefore, the standard practice is that private businesses must buy up land near existing exits and build their own facilities to serve travelers. Such facilities often have tall signs that can be seen from several miles away (so that travelers have adequate time to make a decision). In turn, it is somewhat harder to visit such private facilities, because one has to first exit the freeway and navigate through several intersections to reach a desired business's parking lot, rather than exit directly into a rest area's parking lot. Public rest areas are usually (but not always) positioned so as to not compete with private businesses.
.]] Special blue signs indicating gas, food, lodging, camping and attractions at an exit can be found on most freeways in North America. Private businesses are permitted to add their logos to these signs by paying the government a small fee.
Attempts to remove the federal ban on privatized rest areas have been generally unsuccessful, due to resistance from existing businesses that have already made enormous capital investments in their existing locations.
For example, in 2003, President George W. Bush's federal highway funding reauthorization bill contained a clause allowing states to start experimenting with privatized rest areas on Interstate highways. The clause was fiercely resisted by the National Association of Truck Stop Owners (NATSO), which argued that allowing such rest areas would shift revenue to state governments (in the form of lease payments) that would have gone to local governments (in the form of property and sales taxes). NATSO also argued that by destroying private commercial truck stops, the bill would result in an epidemic of drowsy truck drivers, since such stops currently provide about 90% of the parking spaces used by American truck drivers while in transit.
Pennsylvania, which opened the first such highway in 1940 with the mainline Pennsylvania Turnpike, was the model for many subsequent areas. Instead of operating the service areas themselves, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission opted to lease them out to Standard Oil of Pennsylvania (which was acquired shortly afterwards by the modern-day Exxon), which in turn operated a gas station with a garage, and Howard Johnson's franchises as a restaurant offering. The turnpike currently leases the gas station space to Pennsylvania-based Sunoco (which operates A-Plus convenience stores instead of garages at the sites) and the rest of the service area space to HMSHost.
Some turnpikes, such as Florida's Turnpike, were never integrated into the Interstate system and never became subject to the federal ban on private businesses. On turnpikes that did become Interstates, all privatized rest areas in operation prior to January 1, 1960 were allowed to continue operating. Such facilities are often called service areas by the public and in road atlases, but each state varies:.]] Delaware, Maryland, Kansas, and Oklahoma - service area Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia - service plaza New Jersey - service area or service plaza
Some states, such as Ohio, allow nonprofit organizations to run a concession trailer in a rest area.
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A scenic area is similar to a parking area, but is provided to the traveler in a place of natural beauty. These are also called scenic overlooks.
Two (along Highway 400, just north of Vaughan, Ontario) are planned to be reconstructed after the freeway is widened around 2008–2009, and two other service stations at Cookstown and Barrie, Ontario have since been expanded into an outlet mall.
The service centres in Ontario have private restaurants and establishments. Most of them used to be independently operated; however during the early 1990s they were taken over by major restaurant and convenience store chains. They also contain gas stations, washrooms, picnic areas, vending machines, and arcade games.
Reese's Corner at the intersection of Highway 21 South and Highway 7 is often considered a service centre; even since Highway 7 was bypassed by the freeway Highway 402, 402 travellers can reach it via Exit 25. Lastly, truck inspection stations (which are more frequent than service centres) can be used by travelers for bathroom breaks, although this is not encouraged.
Smaller parking areas, mostly known as a Rastplatz (:de:Autobahnparkplatz), are more frequent, but they have only picnic tables and sometimes toilets (signposted).
In Malaysia, an overhead bridge restaurant (OBR) or overhead restaurant is a special rest area with restaurants above the expressway. Unlike typical laybys and RSAs which are only accessible in one-way direction only, an overhead restaurant is accessible from both directions of the expressway.
In Japanese English, a rest area is called a "service area" or a "parking area". A service area has a restaurant/eating place and a convenience store, in addition to the parking area and the toilets in the parking area.
In Thailand, bus travel is common, and long-distance bus rides typically include stops at rest areas designed for bus passengers. These rest stops typically have a cheap noodle or curry restaurant as well as a small store for buying food.
Amenity and hygiene are important considerations for the responsible authorities, as such remote sites can be very expensive to clean and maintain, and vandalism is common. As well, Australia's dependence on road transport by heavy vehicles can lead to competition between the amenity needs of recreational travelers and the drivers of the heavy vehicles, so much so that on arterial routes it is common to see rest areas specifically signed to segregate the two user groups entirely. Due to these considerations, rest areas generally do not allow overnight occupation. In Queensland, however, well-maintained rest areas sometimes explicitly invite travelers to stay overnight, as a road safety measure, but this situation is rare elsewhere.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
