Rest Area Closed - Next Rest Area 200 Miles

Wow, that's at least 3 hours away; if we run into traffic congestion
in L.A. or Orange County, it will be much longer.

So, where was this gem posted? Near Exit 207 on southbound I-5 in
Lebec, CA in southern Kern County.

Is it really 200 miles to the next Rest Area? No, the next Rest Area
is only 150 miles away, located at Exit 60 near Oceanside, CA. It was
200 miles from the last open Rest Area, at Exit 259 near Buttonwillow,
CA, but this sign near Lebec was 50+ miles farther south, so the
correct mileage on this sign should have been about 150.

Amazingly, there's not a single Rest Area in Los Angeles County nor in
Orange County; the only Rest Area that is farther south on I-5 is in
northern San Diego County.

For a list of CA Rest Areas:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/ra/Statewide.htm

> "Larry Scholnick" > wrote
>
> Wow, that's at least 3 hours away; if we run into traffic congestion
> in L.A. or Orange County, it will be much longer.
>
> So, where was this gem posted? Near Exit 207 on southbound I-5 in
> Lebec, CA in southern Kern County.


I've always wondered about that sign. It seems to imply that there's no
place to stop for 200 miles, when there is in fact one of the largest cities
in America along the way. Who are they trying to serve with this
information? People who are driving, but are too poor to sleep anywhere but
in their car? I'm sure there are such people, but enough to warrant
specialized highway signage?

Also, what percentage of the people on long trips are actually continuing
down I-5 to San Diego, as opposed to going east on I-210 or I-10? The rest
area in Calimesa is actually closer to Lebec than the one in Oceanside.

> Is it really 200 miles to the next Rest Area? No, the next Rest Area
> is only 150 miles away, located at Exit 60 near Oceanside, CA. It was
> 200 miles from the last open Rest Area, at Exit 259 near Buttonwillow,
> CA, but this sign near Lebec was 50+ miles farther south, so the
> correct mileage on this sign should have been about 150.

The 200 miles is probably a coincidence.

There was probably a sign in Buttonwillow saying "Next Rest Area 50 Miles",
since it would be expecting a lot for CalTrans to take that sign down when
they started rebuilding the Lebec rest area. The one in Lebec should have
said, "Fakeout! Next Rest Area 150 Miles".

Also, I guess they don't count truck brake check areas. There's one a few
miles further south, at the Tejon Pass, and another just before Templin
Highway.

> Amazingly, there's not a single Rest Area in Los Angeles County nor in
> Orange County; the only Rest Area that is farther south on I-5 is in
> northern San Diego County.

Not so amazing. In heavily populated areas, real estate is expensive, and
there are lots of other places to stop.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto

> "Larry Scholnick" wrote
>> Wow, that's at least 3 hours away; if we run into traffic congestion
>> in L.A. or Orange County, it will be much longer.
>>
>> So, where was this gem posted? Near Exit 207 on southbound I-5 in
>> Lebec, CA in southern Kern County.

Paul D. DeRocco wrote:
> I've always wondered about that sign. It seems to imply that there's no
> place to stop for 200 miles, when there is in fact one of the largest cities
> in America along the way. Who are they trying to serve with this
> information? People who are driving, but are too poor to sleep anywhere but
> in their car? I'm sure there are such people, but enough to warrant
> specialized highway signage?

Probably truckers.

Metro Los Angeles is one of the worst places in the US to drive a truck.
(The San Francisco bay area is almost as bad, and they say the same about
New York City but I only went there once in the year I was a trucker.)
Every city and county in the 4-county region bans overnight parking of big
rigs on its streets; and for practical purposes there is only one truck
stop with parking in the area: the TA in Ontario, which is technically two
establishments across a street from each other. (There are a couple with
no parking in the Long Beach area, and one in Castaic which is so small
I've never been able to find parking there even in mid-morning, when you'd
expect them to be emptiest.)

I learned to deal with LA the way all the experienced truckers do: don't
bother entering the metro area after about 1 pm. Park overnight at the
Frazier Park Flying J if coming from the north on I-5; at the San Onofre
rest area if coming from San Diego; in Palm Desert if westbound on I-10;
or at the 15/395 junction if southbound on I-15, and wait for morning.
Then make sure you get your loading/unloading done in one day and get out
again (unless your trucking company happens to have a yard in LA, with
parking that you can use; mine didn't).

The San Francisco area is not quite as bad; street parking is allowed in
many areas. But it also has only one truck stop -- and that one is bad
news. (It's on Hegenberger Rd. just outside the Oakland airport, and the
word is that if you park there to sleep, you WILL get robbed or hijacked.)
I don't think it has rest areas any longer, either.

The westernmost rest area on I-80 is at Gold Run (milepost 143) in the
high Sierras.

> "John David Galt" > wrote
>
> Probably truckers.

I've never been a trucker, but it's always seemed that truckers find lots of
places to stop, besides commercial truck stops and rest areas. There seem to
be certain exit ramps that always have trucks parked along them, such as the
Vista Del Lago exit off I-5 north, between Castaic and Lebec, or the Zzyzx
Rd. exit off I-15 north. Is it really legal to park there, or is there some
sort of unofficial police policy of looking the other way at certain exits,
in recognition of the reality of the needs of truckers?

But I also gather that truckers are already well-informed about where to
stop, and have plenty of people to ask if they're in an unfamiliar area, so
I rather doubt they find the "next rest area" signs helpful.

> Metro Los Angeles is one of the worst places in the US to drive a truck.
> Every city and county in the 4-county region bans overnight parking of big
> rigs on its streets; and for practical purposes there is only one truck
> stop with parking in the area: the TA in Ontario, which is technically two
> establishments across a street from each other. (There are a couple with
> no parking in the Long Beach area, and one in Castaic which is so small
> I've never been able to find parking there even in mid-morning, when you'd
> expect them to be emptiest.)

I suspect you're likely to find few truck stops in urban areas for the same
reason you won't find many rest areas: real estate prices.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto

On 04/19/11 13:48, Larry Scholnick wrote:

> For a list of CA Rest Areas:
> http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/ra/Statewide.htm

WTF kind of construction could they be doing at the Tejon Pass rest area
that won't be completed until fall of 2012?

--
Cheers, Bev
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it
everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every
human being who ever was, lived out their lives." -- Carl Sagan

> "John David Galt" wrote
>> Probably truckers.

Paul D. DeRocco wrote:
> I've never been a trucker, but it's always seemed that truckers find lots of
> places to stop, besides commercial truck stops and rest areas. There seem to
> be certain exit ramps that always have trucks parked along them, such as the
> Vista Del Lago exit off I-5 north, between Castaic and Lebec, or the Zzyzx
> Rd. exit off I-15 north. Is it really legal to park there, or is there some
> sort of unofficial police policy of looking the other way at certain exits,
> in recognition of the reality of the needs of truckers?

Parking on off-ramps is illegal (and, I believe, enforced) everywhere.
Parking on ON-ramps can be OK depending on the state. I mostly see it in
places where there aren't any rest areas or they are full.

> But I also gather that truckers are already well-informed about where to
> stop, and have plenty of people to ask if they're in an unfamiliar area, so
> I rather doubt they find the "next rest area" signs helpful.

Depends on how experienced the trucker, and also varies by area. In some
parts of the eastern US, a trucker doesn't dare pull off the freeway at an
exit he doesn't know, because there's a good chance he'll be stuck there
(by curves, telephone poles, and the like that make it impossible to turn
around).

>> Metro Los Angeles is one of the worst places in the US to drive a truck.
>> Every city and county in the 4-county region bans overnight parking of big
>> rigs on its streets; and for practical purposes there is only one truck
>> stop with parking in the area: the TA in Ontario, which is technically two
>> establishments across a street from each other. (There are a couple with
>> no parking in the Long Beach area, and one in Castaic which is so small
>> I've never been able to find parking there even in mid-morning, when you'd
>> expect them to be emptiest.)

> I suspect you're likely to find few truck stops in urban areas for the same
> reason you won't find many rest areas: real estate prices.

When the freeways first came to LA, and SF also, they had rest areas. Most
of them closed because Caltrans didn't want to pay to keep them clean.
A few got clobbered because the freeway was widened, or for other reasons
(such as becoming targets of robbers or gathering places for vice).

> "The Real Bev" > wrote
> WTF kind of construction could they be doing at the Tejon Pass rest area
> that won't be completed until fall of 2012?

About ten miles up at Laval Road, a whole new truck stop was built since the
Lebec rest area was closed. They should take a lesson.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto

> > I've always wondered about that sign. It seems to imply that there's no
> > place to stop for 200 miles, when there is in fact one of the largest cities
> > in America along the way.

Well... what it really means is that there are no free, official,
restroom-equipped, state-maintained places to stop for 200 miles, as
opposed to either commercial establishments or wide spots with no
facilities.


> > Who are they trying to serve with this information?

> Probably truckers.

Yes -- not just for "rest" as a euphemism for releasing coffee into
the wild, but for crawling back into the sleeper and logging some
required intervals of actual rest. Out in the Mojave, it is common
to see trucks pulled over for a snooze at informally designated or at
least unofficially tolerated wide spots at the side of the road, or at
certain interchanges. No facilities, of course. CHP probably
figures that if they're well off the road (and they are) it's not
hurting anything and far better than the risk of falling asleep at the
wheel.

So that's probably the little x in the middle of the bullseye of the
target audience -- trucks aren't welcome at, or simply can't easily
get in and out of, a lot of places that cater to cars. A lot of car
drivers stop at the rest areas too, especially in the boondocks where
restaurants and gas stations are few and far between. The rest areas
usually have a dog-walking place, some trees and picnic tables, etc.,
as well as parking lots and restrooms.

As for the signage: Caltrans always seems to have taken a *long* time
to finish whatever it is they do when rehabbing a rest area. This
might be driven in part by the stand-alone infrastructure of many of
them (water supply, waste disposal, etc. ) though I'm sure the state's
epic budget problems of recent years don't make it any quicker and
easier.

: A few got clobbered because the freeway was widened, or for other
reasons
: (such as becoming targets of robbers or gathering places for vice).

The one on I-80 up near Fairfield had that reputation some years
ago.

I certainly consider actually sleeping in a rest area to be a last-
ditch alternative to either finding a decent affordable motel or
making my way far enough up a bad enough dirt road so that nobody
without major skills is getting near me without waking me up. The
wisdom of this was confirmed some years ago, in the wee smalls one
night at the rest area on 58 near Boron. Footsteps woke me up -- I
don't mind proximity to strangers; I just feel better when they have
to walk or drive a good long way to achieve it -- and soon there
appeared a lonely fellow approaching my car with, I eventually
gathered, a desire to make friends.

This took a bit of hinting (which he was sensible enough to do from
several feet away). I'm not sure whether it was his first time trying
that, or he was just too shy or full of self loathing to get to the
point, or what, but eventually he was made to realize that I wasn't
interested, without having to discover that what I had in my hand
underneath the blanket wasn't what he was presumably fantasizing
about. I patched out of there and resolved that it was the last of
the few times I'd ever tried to sleep in a rest area.

It may be safer for truckers who can keep the rig buttoned up with the
air conditioning going, and perhaps there is also safety in numbers
for them. If I can't make it to the next town with a decent
inexpensive motel, I'm going far enough up a bad enough dirt road that
nobody is getting near me without waking me up. I'd just as soon
leave rest areas to prey and predators, being neither.

So that's the situation in the wide open spaces and the outskirts of
the urban areas. The plight of the truck driver who runs out of duty
hours, or is delayed by traffic and can't unload until morning, in our
large cities has been well described by others. As a matter of both
urban planning policy and the details of traffic enforcement, we like
the things that arrive by truck but don't particularly like having
trucks around to bring them.

--Joe

On 04/20/11 20:33, Paul D. DeRocco wrote:

>> "The Real > wrote
>> WTF kind of construction could they be doing at the Tejon Pass rest area
>> that won't be completed until fall of 2012?
>
> About ten miles up at Laval Road, a whole new truck stop was built since the
> Lebec rest area was closed. They should take a lesson.

It's not like the rest areas turn a profit or anything :-(

--
Cheers, Bev
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SAVE GAS, FART IN A JAR

> "The Real Bev" > wrote
>
>> About ten miles up at Laval Road, a whole new truck stop was built since
>> the
>> Lebec rest area was closed. They should take a lesson.
>
> It's not like the rest areas turn a profit or anything :-(

Exactly. But if the state is going to spend the money on fixing up a rest
area, it doesn't wind up cheaper if done in dribs and drabs over a stretch
of three years.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto