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Pennsylvania shuts its rest stops to all activity, including parking

John Kingston
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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

  2. LewK

    Another example of the stupidity of the governor!
    How does he think the grocery stores get their supplies keeping trucks moving should be priority #1

  3. Not A Trucker

    Absolutely ridiculous policy. If trucking stops or is impeded we will exacerbate the current situation into complete chaos within a matter of days. We simply cannot move goods around without trucks, and they are perhaps the most critical traffic on the road right now, more so than ever. By virtue of geography, many trucks have to pass through PA on I-80 and I-76/70 (and it’s not cheap). Removing truck stops deprives them of needed food, restrooms, and respite. Not providing at least coffee and some hot fast food is unreasonable, given that all the surrounding states are keeping their stops and plazas going.

  4. John C

    That is the dumbest thing I have heard. If a driver needs to pull over to rest so as not to fall asleep at the wheel, how is he or she going to spread the virus from sitting in the car or truck. We have the dumbest government in the history of the world.

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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.