Canada In Canada, roadside services are known as service centres in most provinces. In some instances, where there are no retail facilities, they may be known as rest areas or text stops ( in French). Most service centres are concentrated along
Ontario's
400-series highway and
Quebec's
Autoroute networks, while rest areas are found along the highway networks of all provinces, and the
Trans-Canada Highway. In
New Brunswick, the only rest areas are roadside parks with picnic tables and washrooms operated as a part of the
provincial park system. However, many have closed due to cutbacks. Occasionally,
litter barrels are also found along the side of the road. The
Prairie provinces of
Saskatchewan and
Manitoba have rest stops located along the Trans-Canada Highway (
Highway 1). However, these stops are simply places to rest, or go to the washroom; they are not built to the standard rest area found on the 400-series highways in Ontario, or the
Interstate Highways of the United States.
Alberta Alberta Transportation operates seven provincial rest areas or safety rest areas. These include: In 1991, a service centre was placed in
Mississauga to cater to eastbound traffic entering the west of the
Greater Toronto Area; this location was branded as Info Centre, promoting Toronto tourism, and served until its closure on September 30, 2006. The rest areas on Highway 401 at Ingersoll and Newcastle (both serving only the westbound carriageway) and the Highway 400 rest area in Maple (Vaughan) (serving southbound traffic only) were completely rebuilt to a shared design in the late 1990s, and remain in service today with minor modifications. In 2010–11, all the remaining older service centres were replaced by a common design operated by
HMSHost subsidiary Host Kilmer under the
ONroute banner, which features a selection of fast food providers akin to a
food court. In line with the 400-series Highways being fully controlled-access, all of these service centres allow general access by freeway entry/exit only and do not connect to adjacent roads, even those located in cities. Some of these urban service centres may have restricted access to surface streets, during construction, and on an ongoing basis for staff, suppliers deliveries, and waste disposal. The only exception was the Cookstown service centre, which was directly connected to
Highway 89 (a surface street) as well as the Highway 400 freeway since the centre was located at their interchange. The Cookstown service centre closed on February 1, 2013 in order to accommodate reconfiguration of the interchange ramps, being replaced by a new service centre (Innisfil ONRoute) on Highway 400 north of Fourth Line which opened in June 2015. Outside of the ONRoute locations there are 211 rest areas along provincial highways. Most are basic stops (picnic area) with restrooms for most locations and parking for most vehicles (commercial trucks may not be serviced at small areas). Most are seasonal operated from mid May to mid November. Reese's Corner at the intersection of
Highway 21 and
Highway 7 is often considered a service centre. Although Highway 7 was bypassed by the freeway
Highway 402 in the late 1970s, Reese's Corner still receives much traffic as it is only a short distance from the interchange of Highway 402 and Highway 21 (Exit 25). Lastly,
truck inspection stations (which are more frequent than service centres) can be used by travellers for bathroom breaks, although this is not encouraged. Two off-highway service campuses at Exit 74 along the
Queen Elizabeth Way in
Grimsby are unofficial rest areas for travelling motorists. Two smaller such facilities (Seguin Trail Road south of Parry Sound and Port Severn Road in Port Severn) also exist on the less-busy section Highway 400 north of the last official on-highway service centre.
Quebec In Quebec, rest areas are known as '
and service areas as '. Rest rooms and picnic areas are located along the autoroutes and many of the provincial
highways. Some of the rest areas have vending machines and/or canteens. Some truck and isolated rest areas have no services or they have been removed due to facilities having deteriorated beyond repair. Beginning in 2019, the province began to modernize some rest areas to provide needs for families and truckers. There are about 10 service areas (on Highways 10, 15, 20, 40, 55, 117, and 175); with some of these rest areas have restrooms, filling stations and restaurants/vending machines.
United States on the west bound lanes, near
Sparta, Wisconsin. in
Florida. The sign also makes note of the existence of secure overnight parking and vending machines in the rest area. In the United States, rest areas are typically non-commercial facilities that provide, at a minimum, parking and restrooms. In the United States, there are 1,840 rest areas along interstate routes. They usually have information kiosks, vending machines, and picnic areas, but little else. Some have "dump" facilities, where
recreational vehicles may empty their sewage holding tanks. They are typically maintained and funded by the
departments of transportation of the
state governments. For example, rest areas in
California are maintained by
Caltrans. In 2008, state governments began to close some rest areas as a result of the
Great Recession. Some places, such as
California, have laws that explicitly prohibit private retailers from occupying rest stops. The clause was immediately followed by an exception for facilities constructed prior to January 1, 1960, many of which continue to exist, as explained further below. Therefore, the standard practice is that private businesses must buy up
land near existing
exits and build their own facilities to serve travelers. Such facilities often have tall signs that can be seen from several miles away (so that travelers have adequate time to make a decision). In turn, it is somewhat harder to visit such private facilities, because one has to first exit the freeway and navigate through several intersections to reach a desired business's parking lot, rather than exit directly into a rest area's parking lot. Public rest areas are usually (but not always) positioned so as not to compete with private businesses.
Special blue signs indicating gas, food, lodging, camping and roadside attractions near an exit can be found on most freeways in the United States. Beginning in the mid-1970s, private businesses have been permitted to display their logos or trademarks on these signs by paying a transportation department (or a subcontractor to a transportation department) a small fee. Until the release of the 2000 edition of the
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, these signs were allowed only on the rural sections of highways. The 2000 MUTCD added provisions for allowing these signs on highways in urban areas as long as adequate sign spacing can be maintained, however, some states (such as California and New York) continue to restrict these signs to rural areas only. These signs are allowed on urban freeways in 15 states, with
Arizona being the most recent state (as of 2013) to repeal the restriction of these signs to only rural highways. Attempts to remove the federal ban on privatized rest areas have been generally unsuccessful, due to resistance from existing businesses that have already made enormous capital investments in their existing locations. For example, in 2003,
Congress's federal highway funding reauthorization bill contained a clause allowing states to start experimenting with privatized rest areas on Interstate highways. The clause was fiercely resisted by the
National Association of Truck Stop Owners (NATSO), which argued that allowing such rest areas would shift revenue to state governments (in the form of lease payments) that would have gone to local governments (in the form of property and sales taxes). NATSO also argued that by destroying private commercial truck stops, the bill would result in an epidemic of drowsy truck drivers, since such stops provide about 90% of the parking spaces used by American truck drivers while in transit.
Service areas in
Chittenango, New York Prior to the creation of the
Interstate Highway System, many states east of the
Rocky Mountains had already started building and operating their own long-distance intercity
toll roads (turnpikes). To help recover construction costs, most turnpike operators leased concession space at rest areas to private businesses. In addition, the use of this sort of service area allows drivers to stop for food and fuel without passing through additional tollbooths and thereby incurring a higher toll.
Pennsylvania, which opened the first such highway in 1940 with the mainline
Pennsylvania Turnpike, was the model for many subsequent areas. Instead of operating the service areas themselves, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission opted to lease them out to Standard Oil of Pennsylvania (which was acquired shortly afterward by the modern-day
Exxon), which in turn operated a
Filling station with a
garage and
Howard Johnson's franchises as a
restaurant offering. The turnpike leases the filling station space to
Sunoco (which operates
7-Eleven convenience stores instead of garages at the sites) and, as of 2021, the rest of the service area space to
Applegreen. In the summer of 2021, Iris Buyer LLC (an Applegreen company) announced that they were acquiring all travel plazas by HMSHost. The deal reached an agreement at the end of July 2021 officially transferring ownership. The New York State Thruway Service Areas (which will be owned by another company by Applegreen) was not affected by this transition due to the fact that Host's contract was expired. As of July 2022, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have service areas that are operated or have stake by Applegreen. Some turnpikes, such as
Florida's Turnpike, were never integrated into the Interstate system and never became subject to the federal ban on private businesses. On turnpikes that did become Interstates, all privatized rest areas in operation prior to January 1, 1960, were
allowed to continue operating. Such facilities are often called
service areas by the public and in
road atlases, but each state varies: • Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia – service plaza • Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, and Oklahoma – service area • Illinois –
oasis • Indiana and New York – travel plaza • New Jersey – service area or service plaza
Text stops In 2013, the state of New York launched "It Can Wait", a program for encouraging drivers to pause at rest stops and parking areas along state roads to
text (thereby avoiding
texting while driving), by designating all such areas "text stops". The practice involves placing road signs which indicate the nearest "texting zone" at which to legally stop and use mobile devices such as
smartphones.
Welcome centers in
West Virginia. State welcome centers are often located near state or municipal borders in the United States. A rest area often located near state or municipal borders in the United States is sometimes called a
welcome center. Welcome centers tend to be larger than regular rest areas, and are staffed at peak travel times with one or more employees who advise travelers as to their options. Some welcome centers contain a small
museum or at least a basic information kiosk about the state. Because air travel has made it possible to enter and leave many states without crossing the state line at ground level, some states, like California, have official welcome centers inside major cities far from their state borders. In some states (such as Massachusetts), these rest areas are called tourist information centers and in others (such as New Jersey),
visitor centers.
Other types Rest areas without modern restrooms are called waysides. These locations have parking spaces for trucks and cars, or for
semi-trailer trucks only. Some have
portable toilets and
waste containers. In Missouri these locations are called roadside parks or roadside tables. The most basic parking areas have no facilities of any kind; they consist solely of a paved shoulder on the side of the highway where travelers can rest for a short time. A scenic area is similar to a parking area, but it is provided to the traveler in a place of natural beauty. These are also called
scenic overlooks. == Oceania ==