Where have all the rest areas gone?

In the past year, Arizona, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia have all shuttered safety rest areas along their interstate highways to cope with budgetary shortfalls. While we often take safety rest areas for granted, people certainly take notice when they no longer have a place to stretch their legs, use a restroom, walk their pet, or rest.

"They have become this natural essential part of American travel," said Joanna Dowling, a cultural historian who operates a Web site called www.RestAreaHistory.org.

Not only are these closings an inconvenience for motorists, but they also jeopardize highway safety.

"From a traffic safety standpoint, we are concerned about it," said John Townsend of AAA's Mid-Atlantic Club. He said that that 20 percent of crashes and 12 percent of all near-crashes are caused by drowsy drivers. Closing safety rest areas heightens this risk by making it more difficult for drivers to stop and rest.

Sufficient safety rest areas are particularly important for truck drivers, who need safe rest locations. When they cannot find a safe and legal place to park, they must find an illegal, possibly unsafe, location to rest. This can include ramp shoulders. It is essential that we facilitate truck drivers' obligations to meet safety requirements as they move our nation's freight.

Just last week, Albert Thomas, a 56-year-old driver for KLLM Transport Services in Moreno Valley, Calif. was shot and killed while parked in an empty dirt lot, waiting to make a 7 a.m. delivery at a Moreno Valley grocery store. Drivers need safe places to rest while transporting the goods we rely on.

ATA strongly supports "Jason's Law," H.R. 2156 in the House and S.971 in the Senate. The legislation, introduced by New York Democrats Rep. Paul Tonko and Sen. Chuck Schumer, calls for a pilot program to address shortages in safe parking for commercial motor vehicles on the National Highway System. In addition to constructing new safety rest areas, the program also looks to create commercial motor vehicle parking at existing facilities like inspection and weight stations, park-and-ride facilities, commercial truck stops and travel plazas. The congressmen introduced the bills after the family of slain truck driver Jason Rivenburg drew attention to the shortage of safe parking for commercial vehicle drivers.

The creation of more long-term truck parking has been a longstanding issue within the trucking industry and is part of safety policy, outlined in ATA's Safety Agenda, which rolled out in June.