HOW I SEE IT: Shift funding to reopen state’s rest areas
Published: July 30, 2009
Dear Secretary Homer:
I would like to request that you take up the question of shifting some of the available maintenance funding now allocated to various small projects around the state to reopen the rest areas that were recently closed.
Virginia’s closed rest areas should be reopened for many reasons but the most important is that there is a serious safety risk created by these closures. Rest areas are often the only place a drowsy driver can stop to rest. This particularly affects long-haul truck drivers since they are required by law to stop and rest. I believe that these rest area closures will cause many more accidents on our interstate highways. In the long run the closures will cost us more both in lives and as a result of higher need for emergency services.
AAA wrote to Congressman Frank Wolf on July 16th:
“This issue is already resonating among the motoring public and the trucking industry. In fact, a growing number of motorists have expressed alarm about the decision to close the rest areas and to cordon off their entrances.
In our view, there is no question that the safety of motorists will be negatively impacted by the closing of rest areas in Virginia. The problem goes well beyond the need to use restroom facilities. Long haul drivers need to stop to rest, drink caffeine, change drivers, etc. If they do not have a convenient option they may drive when they are too tired to do so.
Nearly one-third of drivers (28%) say that they have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving a vehicle, according to extensive research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
It is estimated that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year, resulting in an estimated 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses, as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In fact, NHTSA reports that twenty percent of crashes and twelve percent of near-crashes were caused by drowsy drivers.”
These closures are also causing Virginia to be a laughing stock around the country. I have heard from several people living in the Midwest that the call in radio shows are making a big issue of this. This negative notoriety will likely impact our tourism industry and generally is bad for the commonwealth.
I hope that you will seriously consider using a portion of the maintenance funds available to reopen the rest areas.
Marshall represents Manassas in the Virginia General Assembly.
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Reader Reactions
Let’s all get used to expecting less. We’re moving into bondage. The off-shore power structure is moving us further and futher into Eco-worship (which is actually Gaia worship), which will begin to impede on your daily life.
The closing of rest stops is just the beginning.
I feel bad for the tired truck drivers. That’s really unfair.
In 1986, gas was about half in price of what it is today. Since then the price has doubled but the gas tax has actually dropped as a percentage of the cost from about 15% to less than 10%. It is one of the few things we buy where the tax is based on the volume rather than the cost. Imagine if milk was priced per gal back in 1986 and no legislators would increase the tax even as inflation made that tax less and less.
Set the tax on gas to the price not the gal. Let the people who use the roads pay to open the rest stops and fix the roads.
As an over the road trucker I have always tried to avoid the state of Va. because of the lack of parking for big trucks. There never has been enough truck parking spaces in Va. for all of the trucks that travel through the state. Many times at the end of a 14 hour day I have found myself going from truck stop to truck stop looking for parking with every spot full Being forced to drive tired just looking for a spot to stop. This happens to hundreds of truckers every night. No one wants to be on the road when they are to tired to be completely safe. Sometimes your forced to. Closing rest areas forces even more tired drivers on the road.
Why not close all the rest stops and make everyone use local businesses at the off ramps, or better yet make them hold it until they reach the border and use the other state’s welcome center/rest stops?
I too do not understand why this is such an issue. Not quite half, I believe, of the rest stops have closed. There are still rest stops open, and as has been pointed out, people can pull off onto an exit ramp to a fast food joint for some R & R. To tout it as a major safety issue is ridiculous, nor is Virgina “closed”.
What should be cut out instead?
Raises? Ooops, done that already
Road maintenance? Ooops, done that already.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how this issue is getting so much push-back. Massive recession, unbalanced budget, yet nobody seems to want to understand that something has to give to weather the storm. The most amusing part of this, from my perspective, is that it seems to be conservatives who are arguing this the most, which is completely hypocritical . . . closing these rest areas will lead to more traffic at truck stops, convenience stores and restaurants along highway exits, thereby shifting a service provided by the government to the private sector. Seems to me, this might just be another example of one party deciding to be the party of no . . .
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