Two of the effects of our state’s budget woes: VDOT is eliminating their safety patrol and we’re shutting down 18 of our 40 rest stops. Our rest stops serve 45,000,000 travelers every year. What message will we send to tourists when we block off the ramp with boulders and surround the abandoned buildings with barbed wires?
All of this is only going to get worse, year after year, as the cost of maintaining our roads exceeds the money available for maintenance and construction combined. Some governor is going to need the cojones to fix this, and a legislature that’s willing to provide the funding. I wonder how bad it’ll have to get before the political will materializes.
The Republican “Valley Caucus” which includes Steve Landes, Todd Gilbert, Chris Saxman, Matt Lohr, and Lord Obenshain have determined that what Virginia needs is another audit of VDOT. The first 5 were not enough!
Meanwhile Todd Gilbert showed up in Verona this spring to lecture the VDOT commissioner that cutting back on road maintenance in his rural district violated provisions of the 1932 Byrd Road Act…apparently Gilbert has forgotten that he is a Virginia Delegate with power to propose a durable source of highway funds.
Landes whined to VDOT, “Do you all realize that there is another part of Virginia other than Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area? Citizens do cross to this side of the mountain.” Sure Steve, we also know that you have vowed to; “oppose and vote against
any and all efforts to increase taxes.” -as instructed by Grover Norquist. Maybe the tooth fairy is Republican?
“What message will we send to tourists when we block off the ramp with boulders and surround the abandoned buildings with barbed wires?”
That the state is broke, and is taking measures to trim its budget? Seriously, I think most people realize what’s going on, and will just go to the next rest stop or a McDonald’s.
Of all the things going wrong in Virginia that need money to fix, rest stop closings seem very low on what our priority should be.
I’d obviously prefer to see the rest stops remain open as they are, but if it would prevent their closure then wouldn’t it make sense to sell or lease the property to, say, a gas and fast food franchise owner? The business would be getting a good enough exclusive location that I would think the state could make it a requirement in the lease that the lessee provide 24 hour bathroom access to all comers.
The state tourism director just discussed this issue, including the latter point, at a meeting of the Appropriations Committee. Apparently Federal law prohibits commercialization (beyond vending machines) of rest stops on interstates. States that have full service interstate rest stops (like Maryland) probably were grandfathered in.
Waldo, I think the same thing as I ride secondary roads here in Fairfax. Many of them are beginning to look like third-world roads, full of pot holes. We save tax money only to spend much more on new rims, broken suspensions and new tires.
While I agree with your larger point that transportation needs to be given a higher priority in budgeting, I, for one, have never thought that the Commonwealth “defined itself through charming roadside rest stops.”
“Seriously, I think most people realize what’s going on, and will just go to the next rest stop or a McDonald’s.”
Not so much fun when the trucks pull off looking for a McD’s or start skipping on rest breaks. I-81 is scary enough as it is.
The situation is far worse than rest areas closing; maintenance shops are being closed and their territories combined, Cat 4 and 5 roads (rural, gravel, low-traffic) will not be plowed. We will see rural residents unable to receive timely emergency responses.
In Virginia, they came first for the rest stops, And I didn’t speak up because I could go to McDonald’s.