Re-Opening our Rest Stops
During the campaign Bob pledged to re-open Virginia’s rest stops within 90 days after the start of his term.
Read the Washington Post article on how Bob is keeping that promise, as well as fighting against new taxes.
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Posted by Vincent Harris on 12/09 at 04:33 PM in
(7) Comments
I hope he succeeds without adding tolls…
thank you, thank you , thank you. I am not a trucker nor do I even know any personally but I have always felt that the rest stops are vital to them. I used to say to folks during the campaign that I would vote for whoever will reopen the rest stops and I see my vote was good.
A second thought that if you need to privatize them like the ABC stores—-putting in a Panera’s or a Wendy’s or such to help support their costs, I think that is ok too.
This article says that he’s only considering a couple of tolls, and he’s also considering lots of other ways to get revenue for transportation:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/state_regional_govtpolitics/article/MCDO09_20091208-222007/310369/
B Pirro - I agree, whatever it takes to improve costs and get them open again. I’m sure private companies could handle rest stops very well - and it could bring a lot of tax money in.
Please review ALL information before re-opening all the rest stops. I know the ones near Oilville on I-64 need extensive water and sewage renovation. Truckers have already re-directed their stop to Zions Crossroads where there is now a booming business. For safety, maybe the rest stop on the westbound side should be re-opened, but there is no reason for the eastbound side when Richmond is 15 min. away.
Not sure non-violent prisoners as workers is a good solution. What about using E-ZPass? Charge $1 via E-ZPass or a dollar on an honor system at the restroom. Hopefully this could be worked out with the federal government and the national highway system. Just my 100 cents!
For over 20 years, there has been discussion about commercializing rest areas located on the non-tolled interstate highways. For over 20 years, I have been involved in developing commercial rest areas on toll roads. The facts are: commercial rest areas generate lease revenue to the state agencies; there is a strong demand by the private sector to operate these facilities and the public is very willing to utilize them.
With all of the discussion going on about whether rest areas should be commercialized or not, I have not seen any data to support the amount of revenue that the State could anticipate from this initiative. A short-term intensive study should be conducted to determine this information before they are reopened.