Here, in the flaming hot South, you still can’t, even for a few minutes. I know someone whose dog died because he left it in the car for a five minute pee-and-grab-a-sandwich-to-go stop in southern Alabama. Poor dog was dead by the time he got out to the car.
Because of that – and because it’s never occurred to me to find a PetSmart to stop at – I always take my spare set of car keys along on the road trip. I leave the keys in the ignition, pull the emergency brake and leave the engine on with the A/C running. Then I take the spare key and lock the car behind me, go do my business, come back to a chilled dog, walk it, and we’re on our way.
If you have keyless entry, of course, no need to bring the spares.
ETA: I also once managed to get the security guard at a turnpike rest area to hold my dog’s leash while I went inside to pee. She completely ignored him and he looked silly standing there with some random dog sniffin’ at his feet.
Sometimes they are leased to a private company. Here, for instance, is a 2009 article indicating that the Carlyle Group will operate the rest stops in Connecticut for 35 years, per an agreement with the state.
Or the state still owns the land and concessionaires operate the restaurants ,gas station, convenience store ,etc. HMS Host is the food concessionaire at number of the travel plazas on the NYS Thruway and there are two other concessionaires for the remaining plazas; Sunoco and Mobil have the fuel concessions.
True enough, but I think the point Tastes of Chocolate was making was that it doesn’t need to be staffed 24/7: it’s open for people to go in and use the restroom/vending machines even when there’s no one on site, unlike a gas station or restaurant.
I like those highway rest areas, and often stop at one.
I am please some things I hadn’t thought about are coming out. The regulated turnpike plazas are a known quantity. LONG ago when I was a regular user of the Ohio Turnpike, the gas was fixed at all the plazas at $36.9/gal. It was often available elsewhere for less. My wife and I would swing up through Cleaveland and east along the lake on I 90 to the US 6N exit in Pennsylvania. Once we stopped for gas along there and I was outraged to get stuck for $47.9 an an exit. That was the last gas we ever bought along there. We had found a reasonable station in Cleaveland. If we didn’t have enough gas to make it to the Keystone station at the 6N exit. we filled up in Cleaveland.
I am starting to think if the government delivers a stream of paying customers for free to those that invest in accommodations, they should graciously accommodate those that only need a rest room some stops. More so if the states close their rest areas rather than allow them to be commercialized. Bottom line. we the people pay for all this one way or another. Maybe we should have though about this before the states spent a fortune of our money upgrading rest areas recently.
We used to leave the dog in the running truck for meal or potty breaks … until the evening that the restaurant manager asked whether we were traveling with a German shepherd. He has figured out how to open the window, and was waiting for us at the front door! (And very few people are game to hold the leash for a GSD or the Pyrenees, even though both are perfectly friendly!)
Now that I’ve invested in a large van, I can kennel the beasties inside the vehicle and leave it running, since we also live in the very hot South.
The big travel plazas may have been built before 1960 - I’m not old enough to know. At least one of the restroom/vending machine variety is much newer- but it may predate the interstate designation.
You’re talking about those roads that don’t have food/fuel/restrooms on the highway, right? Where you pull off and may land at an intersection with a few restaurants/gas stations etc? I don’t know that they don’t graciously accommodate people who only need a restroom - I only know that I would no more use their restroom without buying something than I would use the restroom at a restaurant or gas station on a city street without buying anything.
I wouldn’t have a problem using a restroom at a store like Target without buying anything but :
When I’ve pulled off those kind of roads, going to a Target is going to take me at least a couple of miles out of my way. Usually I end up at an intersection with gas/convenience store , food and maybe a hotel.
If the day ever comes when I walk out of Target without buying something, it will be because they didn’t have anything I wanted, not because I went in only intending to use the restroom.
I’ve leaned toward less use of the highway restrooms lately, instead making a multipurpose stop whenever I have to go, using the restroom and topping up my tank whenever I stop. This is much more possible in the past 20 years as accessible restrooms have become much more common in gas stations.
I don’t see how the creation of gas stations would make it awkward to stop there without buying something, since in all of the setups I’ve seen, the restrooms were in a public place separate from the gas station/restaurants. I have no problem just using the restrooms there since they are publicly supported.
However, I do purchase stuff from actual businesses I stop at to use the restroom. But I make sure I use the restroom BEFORE I make my purchase. Do you know how many times it takes before you get tired of buying something with a full bladder only to find out that the restrooms are closed? One time. But that’s plenty enough.
The only times I walk out completely without purchasing anything from a business is if there’s a long or slow line at a restaurant.