Stateline.org has answered a question I’ve had for a long time, a question that has rolled around in my mind more often lately as I’ve traveled around the country to teach.
Rest stops in Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania often include restaurants, gas stations and mini markets. But rest stops on interstates in my beloved Kentucky, Tennessee and other southern states usually have only picnic tables, restrooms and vending machines. Why the disparity? Stateline.org figured it out:
“The disparity is due to a 1956 federal law aimed at protecting restaurants and gas stations located just off the exits of a growing Interstate highway system. The federal law bans the selling of food or fuel — or anything not sold from a vending machine — at rest areas on Interstates built after 1960. By that time, states in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest had already built turnpikes and other major highways with commercialized rest stops, which were allowed to continue operating.“
In fact, Stateline.org says, Delaware is making money from its rest stops while other states are closing theirs. The story says:
“New Mexico is the most recent case in a rash of rest-stop closures that has affected states from Vermont to California. Facing enormous budget deficits, many states have raided transportation funds, forcing them to shut down all but the most necessary of operations. For Arizona, Louisiana and Virginia, the shuttering of roadside rest stops has become one of the most visible signs of the current budget crisis.“In Delaware, however, the story couldn’t possibly be more different. Last month, Delaware unveiled a sparkling new 42,000-square foot welcome center on the busy Interstate 95 corridor. Not only did Delaware not spend a dime constructing what amounts to a $35 million mini-mall in the highway median. The rest stop actually makes Delaware money. The state’s contract with HMSHost, a company that runs retail operations at many airports, gives Delaware a percentage of revenues from sales of gas, food and other goods — at least $1.6 million per year for 35 years.”
States like California, Oregon and Washington, which do not have commercialized rest stops, are turning to the U.S. Department of Transportation and their members of Congress to try to change the laws. So far, no luck. Fast food companies that spent a lot of money building restaurants at interchanges lobbied to protect the federal ban.
