Closing interstate rest areas to have wide impact

By Peter Bacque

Richmond Times-Dispatch 

Sebastion nosed the water bucket as Hillary Edwards-Burdett leaned into the trailer to water the stallion at the soon-to-be-closed Ladysmith rest area on Interstate 95.

''That'd mess us up big time," the horse trainer from Marietta, S.C., said about the coming closures.

''We stop for the horses, to give them water. Every two to four hours, we're pulling off the highway.

''This is easy -- just pull in," Edwards-Burdett said, standing next to her truck and horse trailer rig. "The parking lots are designed for us."

But to save recession-squeezed dollars, the Virginia Department of Transportation will close 18 interstate-highway rest areas July 21 and the Interstate 66 West Welcome Center at Manassas on Sept. 16. The department says the closures will save $8.6 million this year.

But the closings will also touch other people, businesses, government agencies, even animals such as Sebastion.

Shutting almost half of Virginia's interstate rest areas has become the tangible, if unwelcome, poster child for the state's highway-finance woes.

The rest-area cutbacks are linked to a $2.6 billion reduction in transportation funding. But an estimated 44 million travelers a year use the state's 42 rest stops, and the closures have drawn viral public criticism.

''When you're on the highway, you depend on those rest stops," said Margaret Storti of Henrico County. "To close the public toilets seems like a really petty thing to do."

Safety

Though toilets are the most obvious service that the 24-hour-a-day rest areas provide the motoring public, they have always been linked to highway safety. VDOT's official name for the stops is "safety rest area."

Rest areas reduce dangerous drowsy and distracted driving, officials said, while giving travelers a secure alternative to hazardous parking along the roadside.

''Highways are not designed for cars to be stopped on the shoulders," said state police Capt. Steve Chumley in Richmond. "If a car runs into another car that's parked, we usually have a serious injury or fatality."

Julius Shaw, a truck driver from Newport News, was using the shady Goochland County rest area on Interstate 64 last week. Without a public rest area available, "we have to find places to stop that are dangerous for us and the public," the retired firefighter said.

Federal studies say truck-driver fatigue could be a factor in up to 40 percent of truck crashes and play a role in almost a third of fatal crashes involving truckers.

VDOT says it will create 225 more parking spaces for trucks at the rest areas remaining open. Truckers will have to travel farther to find them. However, highway-safety studies show that night-time truck crashes increase when the distance between rest areas increases.

Jobs

''A lot of good people are going to lose their jobs," said Buck Godwin, director of operations for DTH Contract Services Inc.

DTH handles the day-to-day maintenance at 32 Virginia interstate rest stops for the state Transportation Department, he said, and 15 of them are closing.

When the areas close, 209 contract workers will be laid off, VDOT's Britt Drewes said.

''I've got young kids to take care of," said Pam Jones, one of 23 attendants at the Goochland rest areas. "I've got to find something to do."

According to Tamra Talmadge-Anderson with the Virginia Tourism Corp., the state's tourist-promotion agency, another three welcome-center employees will be out of a job.

Revenue

Even while trying to save money, the state will also lose about $800,000 in revenue from vending machines at closed rest areas.

That money is split between the state's programs for the blind and for tourist promotion.

We estimate closing the rest areas will reduce the revenue as much as 40 percent," said Ray E. Hopkins, commissioner of Virginia's Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired.

The state Transportation Department gets about $1 million from the vending machines. It too anticipates losing 40 percent of that amount.

The Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, which represents restaurants, hotels and tourist venues, manages the tourist-attraction brochure program at the rest areas.

''We make some income off that," the association's Megan Svajda said, though she would not say how much. Now, "we will lose some money."

A couple of hundred companies participate in the brochure program, Svajda said: "They tend to be the smaller ones. . . . For some attractions, the only place to advertise is the rest areas."

Travelers

With their two young children -- ages 5 and 2 -- Ron and Monica Ames were heading home to Erie, Pa., last week, making the 12-hour trek from visiting relatives in North Carolina.

They halted at the Ladysmith rest area. "My girls can't hold it that well," Monica Ames said. How important are the rest areas to her: "Very, very."

Storti's family takes all their trips by car. Storti said they depend on interstate rest stops, which allow them to get back on the highway quickly after they pick up maps or brochures, stretch, picnic or rest "without feeling that we are loitering."

''We were shocked to realize that Virginia is closing nearly half our public rest areas in less than two weeks," the music teacher said. "Virginia's centuries-old reputation of hospitality is in jeopardy over something as basic as public toilets for travelers."

Pets

Lack of rest areas will make auto travel with pets more difficult, pet owners and advocates said.

''Pets are no different than people," said Robin Starr, CEO of the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "They need to be able to take breaks to relieve themselves on long trips."

The designated pet rest areas at the Ladysmith and Goochland rest stops were doing thriving businesses last week.

''We have to stop every two or three hours," said Sandra Jacobs, a Canadian traveler using the Ladysmith rest area so her two dogs, Topaz and Ruby, could potty.

Congestion

Shuttered rest stops will drive travelers and truckers off the interstate to commercial establishments, officials and industry figures say. While some businesses could profit from that, the displacements could come with a price.

For instance, Interstate 81 runs heavy with truck traffic through the historic town of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley.

''These trucks are going to have to go someplace," Town Manager Chris Boies said. "We've had large trucks actually strike buildings in our downtown trying to make turns in our streets.

''There is plenty of room for a horse and buggy," he said, "but it doesn't work so well for an 18-wheeler."

Woodfin Oil Co. has 16 Pit Stop convenience stores on interstates 64 and 95. With the state rest stops' closure, those Pit Stops will get more business, said Jack Woodfin, the company's executive vice president.

''I'd rather have the rest areas open," Woodfin said. "They're going to bury us in people."

Wendy Madison manages the Oilville Exxon station and convenience store at the Oilville exit off Interstate 64. When the Goochland rest area closes, she expects greater numbers of people will come to use her store's rest rooms.

''My concern is people traveling with children," she said. When they need the store's toilets, "we might not be open." 

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)