Four states pursue alternatives to keep rest areas open

[Mike]

Officials in statehouses on both coasts are looking for ways to address concerns about adequate funding to keep open rest areas.

If a Washington state lawmaker gets his way, the state could pursue allowing private business to step in.

The Evergreen State now makes available 48 rest areas for travelers around the state. All but six sites are a part of the national highway system.

Federal law prohibits private and nonprofit entities to lease space at rest areas along the national highway system.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, has a bill that would ask the federal government to make an exception for the state.

“I would hate to not try because someone says it can’t be done,” Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, told the Senate Transportation Committee during discussion on the bill.

Specifically, Benton’s bill would require the Washington State Department of Transportation to request a waiver from the Federal Highway Administration to partner with private business to operate rest areas.

Benton said the state needs to maximize taxpayer-owned assets as they look to get needed projects done.

“If we’re paying to maintain rest areas and we can get someone else to pay that money, and maybe pay us some rent along the way, then taxpayers and the traveling public benefit.”

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[Copperhead]

Privatize the the rest areas! Not sure why we need to pay to keep them open. Just make it mandatory that whoever wants to operate a rest area provide ample parking for trucks. Other than that, bring in the McDonalds, Subway, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, etc and have a party. Would save trucks and other vehicles a lot of time and fuel by not having to go to exits and snake their way up and down streets trying to get the same thing!

 

[DubbleD]

... Would save trucks and other vehicles a lot of time and fuel by not having to go to exits and snake their way up and down streets trying to get the same thing!

Prime would find a way.

 

[Duck]

Privatize the the rest areas! Not sure why we need to pay to keep them open. Just make it mandatory that whoever wants to operate a rest area provide ample parking for trucks. Other than that, bring in the McDonalds, Subway, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, etc and have a party. Would save trucks and other vehicles a lot of time and fuel by not having to go to exits and snake their way up and down streets trying to get the same thing!

Privatized rest areas would be like service plazas on the toll roads, methinks.

But retrofitting an existing rest area would almost certainly result in them using half of the existing truck parking area to make room for a larger building, fuel islands, etc. Unless they want to deal with all the "not in my back yard" folks objecting to the eminent domain stuff they'd have to do in order to acquire more land.

And a lot of rest areas can't really be expanded much anyway because of the land. For example, those so-called "rest areas" in Glenwood Canyon along I-70 in CO that are more like kayak launch points than rest areas. You can't make them bigger without lots of dynamite.