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Pennsylvania shuts its rest stops to all activity, including parking

Pennsylvania has closed all 35 of its highway rest stops to all activity following the declaration of a state of emergency. 

A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Transportation said the closure impacts not only the limited facilities at the rest stops, like bathrooms and vending machines. It also shuts down parking access as well.

“We are reevaluating,” spokeswoman Alexis Campbell told FreightWaves in a text message. “However, we must also consider the ability of our contract cleaners to provide staffing adequate to maintain clean, safe and sanitary facilities while limiting the exposure risk to staff and public.”

The rest stops in Pennsylvania have limited facilities but also have one highly attractive feature – they are free and legal to park. As a truck driver noted in a Facebook truckers group, the alternative will now be the shoulders of the highway. (Though truckers pulling goods that exempt them from the current Hours of Service rule may be able to spend some more time searching for better parking than a shoulder.)


The closures took pace at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, March 17. The state, in its announcement, noted that there already had been closures in place in Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks and Chester counties, all of them in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Ohio, where there also is a state of emergency in place, a spokeswoman for that state’s DOT said there are no restrictions in place at its rest stops.

57 Comments

  1. MELISSA BRITTAIN

    This is just stupid, Leave it open for truck drivers at least to park in a safe place. Put portable toilets outside for them if need but don’t make the roads more unsafe than they already are by forcing drivers to keep going when they are tired or have to pull over on the side of the road as this is not always an option due to the size of the roads. Use your brain and stop panicking you are just making the problem worse. Not everything we are shipping is high demand but it is still needed. Our Drivers are going to be one of the reasons we will keep going and by forcing them to drive while tired to find a safe place to park for a nap is just asking for more trouble. Way to go PA you just set the standards on how to kill a nation even more. People wake up stop and think before you kill us all and not the virus you are scared of.

  2. Lee J McKenzie

    Only when there is no Amazon, no food, no clothing, no options for people’s comfort will truck drivers get the long overdue respect they deserve for the sacrifices they go through everyday, in a little while things will get nasty, people will really panic and the truck driver?…….. well, we will just roll on as always. Hardened by his /her years of disrespect and neglect, we will carry the nation back.
    God bless each and every one

  3. Bob harmsy

    This is crazy…but it points to the fact that those cleaning facilities lack training the necessary education and training to present safe clean restrooms to protect their own health as well as the health of those to whom that labor is directed…be safe drivers

  4. J W McClain

    A misguided thought that can be a catalyst for disaster! No knee jerk reaction can be a good idea in the area of public safety! I’m a professional driver for more than 35 years and closing of safe zones for the motoring public has always been a bad idea! We need more safe areas instead of closing the few of them we have!

    1. Bob harmsy

      This is crazy…but it points to the fact that those cleaning facilities lack training the necessary education and training to present safe clean restrooms to protect their own health as well as the health of those to whom that labor is directed…be safe drivers

    2. Dianne N Frank Roy

      So when your driving the length of the state to go home where do you go to the bathroom? At least open every other one for people to use!

      1. Jeanne

        Exactly! I drove the entire length of the state yesterday to pick my son up from college, so this was a 12 hour round trip. Not one bathroom open. If you’re on I80 the shoulders are narrow, not so great to pullover and go on the side of the road. Which I seriously considered, especially after having coffee and no bathroom for 6 hours until I reached my sons dorm. Not to mention I80 is heavily traveled by trucks and they were forced to rest on these narrow shoulders. I was disgusted that the state would jeopardize their lives like that. At least open the parking lots for the truck drivers. Whoever makes these decisions needs to consider the chain reaction of disasters they’re creating!!

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.