Private US rest stops?

In the US, private rest stops on interstate highways are illegal, leading to restaurants, truck stops, gas stations, and such being built in small towns near interstate highways instead of in state-owned plots directly on the highway. So. How could this not be so? And what would the effects of having privatized rest stops nation-wide (rather than on old routes or in Florida) have on the US?

It's a little more complicated than that.

Interstate highways (which, while mostly financed by the US government are owned and maintained by the All 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Alaska and PR both have unsigned interstates that are financed as part of the system but not built to interstate standards or signed as part of the system) can be divided (for rest area purposes) into two categories:

Toll interstates, which are largely built and funded by state turnpike authorities. Most, but not all toll roads were built before the system was created and were incorporated into it.

Most toll interstates have relatively few Exits and no Rest Areas. Instead they have service plazas maintained by the turnpike authority. The service plaza will have a gas station and one or more restaurants run by a contractor. They may also have tourist information for travelers. They do not usually have any hotels. For a hotel you will need to exit the tool road.

Free interstates, which are built largely with federal funds, were built specific to the system or added to it later.

Free interstates have many more Exits and a number of Rest Areas.

The Rest Areas are non-commercial areas where travelers can pull off the highway to rest or stretch their legs. A Rest Area will usually have restrooms, picnic tables, a place to walk pets, they may also have tourist information (particularly at a "Welcome Center" located just past a state line), a play ground, vending machines, etc.

The exits off the interstate will vary, but will often have gas stations, often right by the exit and entrance ramps, hotels, restaurants (both fast food places and those with table service), etc located within a mile of the interstate. In a suburban or urban area you will often see shopping malls, office parks, warehousing and industry near the exits to take advantage of the highway access.

Information on Interstate Rest Areas:

http://www.thistlekeep.com/tk/trek/tt/030page.htm

This site has multiple aerial photos of Exit 5 on I-75 in Georgia (the interchange with Georgia State Highway 376) The last photo shows the business on one side of the highway: 2 Gas stations, 5 restaurants, and 4 hotels:

http://www.landhappy.com/75.html

This site has a information on Service Plazas on the Ohio Turnpike:

http://www.ohioturnpike.org/travelers/service_plaza/
 
Um not sure if this counts or not, but In oklahoma and kansas I have seen several "rest stop" areas that are in the median of the highway that have gas stations and a mcdonalds or other fast food restaurant.....The one in Kansas that comes to mind is on I-35 south of Wichita, and is actually two separate buildings...a gas station, and then a Kansas Visitor's Center with an attached McDonalds.....so maybe the government DOES rent out space?


Those are service areas on the Kansas Turnpike (I-35, I-335, and I-70) and the several turnpikes (I-44 has at least two sections that are turnpikes) in Oklahoma.

According to the Kansas Turnpike Authority website, the "rest stop" in question is probably the Belle Plaine Service Area at milepost 26:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-2]Belle Plaine - MP 26
The Belle Plaine Service Area currently offers an EZ GO fuel retail facility, Travel Information Center, a McDonald's restaurant, gift shop and weather kiosk. EZ GO and McDonald's are open 24 hours a day

http://ksturnpike.com/ktaabout.shtml



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I'm not sure why everyone is determined to prove me wrong about there not being private rest stops. I was, in fact, aware of that, and wrote a simplified introduction section for the benefit of most people here, who I assumed were not particularly knowledgeable about rest stops. It rather reminds me of the "Cultural Impacts of Alternate Spaceflight" thread I have where everyone is focusing on *what* and *how* Americans are doing in/flying to space, rather than what I was actually interested in (namely, what effect does that have on the people who are not flying into space). In this case, yes, I know there do exist private rest stops, and did so before I even posted the thread; the interest is in what would happen if this were a national rather than a regional phenomenon.
 
The interstates really need more rest areas particularly for truckers. Many fill up quickly at night and the trucker who is at his time limit needs a place to park and take a rest. I for one dont want to see truckers driving those 18 wheeled monsters falling asleep at the wheel.
 
A intresting thread so far...
(From this British poster's POV, I am genuinely suprised that U.S Interstates do not have the equivalent of the Motorway Service Station, which this thread is essentially referring to, or rather the U.S equivalent of such...
In the U.K, the Government owns the land around the Motorway, & Private operators lease the land for a period of time (usually 50 years) from the Government in order to build/run the station).
This link might interest some... http://www.motorwayservices.info
 
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A intresting thread so far...
(From this British poster's POV, I am genuinely suprised that U.S Interstates do not have the equivalent of the Motorway Service Station, which this thread is essentially referring to, or rather the U.S equivalent of such...
In the U.K, the Government owns the land around the Motorway, & Private operators lease the land for a period of time (usually 50 years) from the Government in order to build/run the station).
This link might interest some... http://www.motorwayservices.info

We actually do, just not in the form you have in the UK. As I stated above there are non-commercial rest areas on most major interstates and the vast majority of exits from an interstate will have one or more gas stations, restaurants, truck stops (a combination of gas station and restaurant catering to long haul truckers), they will many times also have hotels too. Land near an interstate exit is valuable (and expensive) because a gas station or restaurant is going to have a steady stream of customers from the freeway. They are close together as illustrated by this Ohio Highway Map:

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/maps/Pages/20072009TransMap.aspx

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/maps/Overview/OTM2007ALG.jpg

Every white square on Interstates 70, 71, 75, 76, 77, 80, and 90 indicates an exit. Probably 90 percent of them have gas, food, or lodging right at the exit, or at least within a mile of it.

Indeed, as I recall, private business lobbied against "service area" type rest areas because they did not want the state governments giving certain businesses a favored status in catering to travelers.
 
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