A rest area, travel plaza, rest stop, or service area is a public facility, located next to a large thoroughfare such as a highway, expressway, or freeway at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting on to secondary roads. Other names include rest and service area (RSA), service station, resto, service plaza, and service center, service centre, and motorway services (or just "services") in the UK. Facilities may include park-like areas, fuel stations, restrooms, and restaurants. A rest area or rest stop with limited or no public facility is a parking area or scenic area. Along some highways and roads are rest stops known as a wayside parks, roadside parks, or picnic areas. Rest areas are common in the United States, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe and Asia.
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The standards and upkeep of rest areas facilities vary. Rest areas also have parking areas allotted for buses, tractor-trailer trucks (big rigs) and recreational vehicles.
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.[1] 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.
Many rest areas have the reputations of being unsafe with regard to crime, especially at night, since they are situated in remote areas. California's policy is to maintain existing public rest areas, but no longer build new ones due to the cost and difficulty of keeping them safe although many California rest stops now feature Highway Patrol quarters.[2] Some of this reputation may be exaggerated, since the advent of lighting and security cameras in rest stops. Nonetheless, many rest stops continue to warn of theft, and advise those who park to keep doors locked (despite the fact that camping is now disallowed in some rest stops).[3]
In the United States, rest areas are typically non-commercial facilities that provide, at a minimum, parking and restrooms. Some may have information kiosks, vending machines, and picnic areas, but little else, while some have "dump" facilities, where recreational vehicles may empty their sewage holding tanks. They are maintained and funded by the Departments of Transportation of the state governments. For example, rest areas in California are maintained by Caltrans. In 2008, state governments began to close some rest areas as a result of the late-2000s recession.[4][5]
Some states, such as California, have laws that explicitly prohibit private retailers from occupying rest stops.[2] A federal statute passed by Congress also prohibits states from allowing private businesses to occupy rest areas along Interstate highways. The relevant clause of 23 U.S.C. § 111 states:
The original reason for this clause was to protect innumerable small towns whose survival depended upon providing roadside services; because of it, private truck stops and travel plazas have blossomed into a $171 billion industry in the United States.[6] 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.[7]
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).[8] 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.
A type of rest area often located near state borders in the United States is sometimes called a welcome center. Welcome centers tend to be larger than a regular rest area, and are staffed at peak travel times with one or more employees who advise travelers as to their options. Some welcome centers contain a small museum or at least a basic information kiosk about the state. Because air travel has made it possible to enter and leave many states without crossing the state line at ground level, some states, like California, also have official welcome centers inside major cities far from their state borders. In Massachusetts, these rest areas are called tourist information centers[9] and in New Jersey, visitor centers.[10]
Prior to the creation of the Interstate Highway System, many states east of the Rocky Mountains had already started building and operating their own long-distance intercity toll roads, or turnpikes. To help recover construction costs, most turnpike operators leased concession space at rest areas to private businesses. In addition, on "closed" or "ticket system" toll roads, such as the New Jersey Turnpike or the New York State Thruway, the use of this sort of service area allows drivers to stop for food and fuel without passing through additional tollbooths and thereby incurring a higher toll.
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:
Some states, such as Ohio, allow nonprofit organizations to run a concession trailer in a rest area.
Rest areas without modern restrooms are called 'waysides'. These locations have parking spaces for trucks and cars, or for semi-trailer trucks only. Some have portable toilets and waste containers.
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.
Most of the service centres in Canada are situated in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, along their 400-Series and Quebec Autoroute networks.
The service centres for Highway 401 were mostly built around 1962. Two more service centres (for eastbound and westbound) were added between Cambridge and Guelph in 1989. In 1993-94, two were placed at the ends of the Greater Toronto Area with one serving eastbound traffic in Mississauga and another for westbound traffic just outside Oshawa; this was to allow travellers to relieve themselves before encountering expected traffic jams inside the heart of the GTA. The Mississauga travel centre closed on September 30, 2006.[21] No additional centres are planned to be constructed.
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.
In Quebec, rest areas are known as haltes routières and service areas as aires de services and are located along their Autoroutes, and many of their provincial highways. There are only four service areas (on highways 15, 40, 117 and 175).[22][23][24][25] The four areas have gas station and restaurant. Also, most of the rest areas have vending machines and/or canteens.
Alberta Transportation operates seven provincial rest areas or safety rest areas.[26][27] These include:[26]
Alberta Transportation also designates partnership rest areas or highway service rest areas that are privately owned and operated highway user facilities. These facilities are currently located on Highway 1 at Dead Man's Flats, Highway 2 at Red Deer (Gasoline Alley), Highway 9 near Hanna, Highway 16 at Niton Junction and at Innisfree, and Highway 43 at Rochfort Bridge.[26][27]
British Columbia has many services centres on its provincial roads, particularly along the Yellowhead Highway/Highway 16, the Coquihalla Highway/Highway 5, and on Highway 97C, the first service centres built in the province. One notable curiosity is a service centre built along Highway 118: it is a minor road connecting two towns to the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy. 16).
The Prairie Provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba) have rest stops located along the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1), however, they are simply places to rest, or go to the washroom; they are not built to such high standards as the 400-Series Highways of Ontario, or the Interstate Highways of the United States.
Nova Scotia has constructed a small number full-fledged service centres along its 100-Series Highways.
In New Brunswick, the only rest areas are roadside parks with picnic tables and washrooms operated as a part of the provincial park system, but many have closed due to cutbacks. Occasionally, litter barrels are also found along the side of the road.
Both the frequency and quality of European rest areas differ from country to country. In some countries such as Spain rest areas are uncommon - motorists are directed to establishments that serve both the travelling public and the local population while in other countries access to a rest area is impossible, other than from a motorway. The Dutch rest area De Lucht (see picture to the right) is typical of many European rest areas.
The term "rest area" is not generally used in the United Kingdom. The most common terms are motorway service areas (MSA), motorway service stations or simply motorway services. As with the rest of the world, these are places where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel, rest, or take refreshments. Most service stations accommodate fast food outlets, restaurants, small food outlets such as Marks and Spencer and coffee shops such as Costa Coffee; many service stations also incorporate motels such as Travelodge. Almost all the MSA sites in the UK are owned by the Department for Transport and let on 50-year leases to private operating companies. However, in December 2008, after a change in the law, the only current official "Rest Area" in the UK was created at Todhills, on the newly opened section of the M6 between Carlisle and the Scottish border.
The term lay-by is used in the United Kingdom and Ireland to describe a roadside parking or rest area for drivers. Equivalent terms in the United States are "turnout" or "pullout".
Lay-bys can vary in size from a simple parking bay alongside the carriageway sufficient for one or two cars only, to substantial areas that are separated from the carriageway by verges and can accommodate dozens of vehicles.
Lay-bys do not appear on motorways in the UK, where until recently only full MSAs were permitted. On other roads, they are marked by a rectangular blue sign bearing a white letter P, and there should also be advance warning of lay-bys to give drivers time to slow down safely. In practice, many local authorities neglect to maintain these signs to an adequate degree, and sometimes they are missing entirely.
Lay-bys are generally beneficial to road safety as they provide somewhere safe for drivers to stop, whether they wish simply to rest, check directions, make a phone call (as it is illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving in the United Kingdom), stretch their legs, or take refreshments.
At some larger lay-bys mobile catering is provided by vendors operating from converted caravans, trailers or coaches. These facilities generally offer much better value for money than roadside restaurants and therefore tend to be popular with truckers.
Some lay-bys have parking restrictions to prevent lorries using them as overnight parking, or as a long term storage area for trailers, and some have been permanently closed off by councils because of problems caused by their occupation by Travellers or other itinerants.
In France, both full service areas and picnic sites are provided on the autoroute network[28] and regulations dictate that there is one such area every 20km on autoroutes.[29] Both types may also be found on national (N-class) highways, although less frequently than on autoroutes.[28] They are known as Aires,[30] specifically Aire de pique-nique and Aire de service respectively, while Aire de repos literally means "rest area"[30] and usually refers to a picnic stop. These types are not usually stated on approach signs, but are instead distinguished by the symbols used. A name is usually given, generally that of a nearby town or village, such as "Aire de Garonne".
Raststätte (de:Autobahnraststätte) is the name of the service areas on the German and Austrian Autobahn. It includes a gas station, public phones, restaurants, restrooms, parking and, many times, a hotel or a motel. If the service area is off the highway, it is named Rasthof or Autohof.
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, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, rest areas have prayer rooms (musola) for Muslims travelling more than 90 km (2 marhalah; 1 marhalah ≈ 45 km).
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.
Rest areas in Australia are a recurrent feature of the road network in rural areas. They are the responsibility of a variety of authorities, such as a state transport or main roads bureau, or a local government's works department. Facilities and standards vary widely and unpredictably; a well-appointed rest area will have bins to deposit small items of litter, a picnic table with seating, a cold water tap (sometimes fed by a rainwater tank, barbecue fireplace (sometimes gas or electric), toilets, and - less commonly - showers. Other rest areas, especially in more remote locations, may lack some or even all of these facilities; in South Australia, a rest area may be no more than a cleared section besides the road with a sign indicating its purpose. Rest areas in Australia do not provide service stations or restaurants (such facilities would be called roadhouses or truck stops), although there may be caravans, often run by charities, providing refreshments to travellers.
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.