Will closing rest stops be a trend?

If you’re driving through Virginia struggling to stay awake or needing some bladder relief, bear in mind that almost half the rest stops are now closed due to budget cuts. Jeremy Korzeniewski pointed that out at Autoblog.

As a person fond of rest stops, I think it’s a darned shame that they’re possibly becoming something of the past. If you know anything about the history of the interstate highway system, you know that rest stops factored into the system’s growth and safety. They helped entice motorists to travel.

Perhaps, Virginia has grown dense enough with commercial businesses that there are enough truck stops, fast food establishments and gas stations with their quick eats that rest stops aren’t so needed.

I know of other states, Ohio being one, where there are enough stretches of highway between toilets that if there wasn’t a rest stop, our son would be making yellow snow in the winter and watering weeds at other times of the year. Of course, if you’re out west there are stretches of highway with not a car in sight. In that case, if you gotta go, you gotta go. For modesty sake, consider the portable toilet..

Catherine wrote about the portable toilet some time ago. Perhaps she saw this day coming.

Here’s another point about those rest stops. What about all those tourist brochures advertising those attractions that only get face time once you cross into a state’s borders? Perhaps McDonald’s and Burger King’s play lands could have racks of brochures for parents and caregivers looking for something to do while their kids are burning off steam.

I’m also wondering about those trucks that make a person nervous every time they weave ever so slightly? What happens if those trucks don’t have adequate places to pull to the side of the road. How much do wrecks cost a state?