Virginia Budget Debacle: Rest Areas

Parent Cafe
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<p>Well, in what seemed like a safe move for legislators to make to help shrink the $2.1 billion budget deficit and the ever expanding Department of Transportation budget, 18 rest areas across Virginia were closed.</p>

<p>The closure is supposed to be permanent. In the next few weeks the rest areas will be boarded up, the fixtures removed and the electricity cut off. For now there are orange cones blocking them from the Interstate, soon there will be metal gates blocking anyone from entering.</p>

<p>The problem is, it only costs $9 million to keep them running. Both candidates for Governor, Republican and Democrat have vowed to reopen them as soon as they enter office. AAA has called on Gov. Kaine to reopen them immediately. The argument is that rest areas are vital for long transportation and people may pull off on the shoulder to rest. The rest areas also promote tourism and the like with maps and such.</p>

<p>Are there any Virginians here affected? What do others think? Is this a viable solution to our state’s budget woes?</p>

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<p>For only $9 million a year, I doubt this move will solve much of anything. And the points raised about travel safety and tourism are valid ones. This doesn’t sound like a smart move.</p>

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<p>The counter argument is that with rest areas being much further apart now people will have to go into town to rest thus giving those economies a small boom.</p>

<p>However, the rest areas are usually located in the middle of nowhere so…</p>

<p>The thing that’s really irking me is that funds are being used for closing the rest areas (it’s a several week project potentially costing upwards of a million) only for them to be reopened again next year when a new governor steps into office.</p>

<p><em>sigh</em> So much for being the Best Managed State in the Nation.</p>

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<p>Politicians will always go for high-visibility cuts to try to force new taxes through, even if the dollar savings are minimal.</p>

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<p>There’s also been talk about passing legislation so that they could be operated privately (as they are in several states). I really don’t care. Closing them was stupid, but it sure did make the papers.</p>

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<p>I saw this in the news the other day - Virginia just renovated some rest areas along I-81.
I hope none of these were shut down.</p>

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<p>If you are traveling through VA and are used to certain rest stops being open, check out the map before you go. They closed them without regard to whether they had just been renovated. BTW - we refer to this as the “Washington Monument” ploy, except they carried through on it. The ploy threatens to reduce the Monument’s hours if the budget gets cut so that people complain to their legislatures and the agency gets more money… </p>

<p>[Safety</a> Rest Areas and Welcome Centers](<a href=“http://virginiadot.org/travel/map-rest-area.asp]Safety”>http://virginiadot.org/travel/map-rest-area.asp)</p>

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<p>Interesting. We just road to and from NC from NJ twice within the last 2 weeks and we did not know about closed rest stops. None of the rest stops that we visited were closed. I guess we lucked out.</p>

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<p>They just closed them a couple of nights ago.</p>

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<p>Well, I guess that we did luck out!</p>

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<p>I always stop at one rest area in VA when I drive down to see our son in the Southwestern part of the state. My guess is that it’s us out of staters that use them more then the VA tax payers and we’re not going to be angry enough to complain.</p>

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<p>Plenty of low guard rails and bushes all along the Virginia interstates. Nothing to worry about!</p>

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<p>I’d make a joke about spotting bushes but I won’t…</p>

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<p>“My guess is that it’s us out of staters that use them more then the VA tax payers and we’re not going to be angry enough to complain.” And yet the hotel and car rental taxes are the first thing to be raised for state income. S is driving through VA in a couple of weeks. He can fill up his car with gas north of the Virginia line, and again in NC.</p>

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I heard about this on the news when I was in Va a few weeks ago. I just assumed it was a highly visible move to shake down taxpayers.</p>

<p>Given that, there sure seem to be a lot of rest areas there compared to out here in California or the west in general and we don’t necessarily even have that many towns to stop at in lieu of the rest stops so maybe it’s not that out of line to close some of them.</p>

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<p>Will they arrest people who need to use a bathroom and can’t find one?</p>

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<p>It was a stupid, awful move, and will cost the taxpayer in the end. Save money my a@#!</p>

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<p>maybe they will fine them… save money and make more at the same time!</p>

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<p>If I were a fast food restaurant owner along that highway, I’d have nightmares about being able to keep my bathrooms clean.</p>

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<p>Last time I drove on I-81 there was a petition-signing campaign about keeping the rest stops open. I agree with previous posters that this is a really negative and traveler-unfriendly move in Virginia as elsewhere. I haven’t been on I-81 since the closings and don’t know which if any stops were closed, but 81 covers hundreds of miles, most of them beautiful but not necessarily dotted with clean, convenient gas stations. (I usually find that McDonald’s rest rooms are okay and use them if there’s no highway rest area nearby but if more and more people stop there to use them because the rest stops are closed that it will be harder to keep them clean and that they may, quite reasonably, start restricting use more stringently to customers.)</p>