I can think of some reasons why they wouldn’t want people using an “oasis” as a turn around. One would be accidents or roadwork on one side of the highway; people being herd animals it would be easy to create a mess at one of the glorified road side rest by having mass amounts of people using them as a turn around. Second would be that being able to use it as a turn around would most likely encourage illegal activities to happen there; like drug transactions, prostitution and people trying to cheat the toll the collector out of 50 cents.
Not only that, but some percentage of that fifty motorists will park, do their business, get back in their cars, zoom right through the exit ramp in the wrong direction and get on the highway’s opposite lanes going the wrong way, with the inevitable slaughter ensuing. You think putting a couple of DO NOT ENTER signs is going to keep that from happening?
That’s a risk no matter how you set up the parking lots, isn’t it?
It’s the Sideling Hill rest area, the only one of its kind on the Turnpike. It was built to service both sides because they bypassed part of the highway nearby, closing one rest area (Cove Valley), and closed another rest area about 10 miles down the road (Path Valley) to save money.
The reason they did it the way they did is exactly as has been guessed: they didn’t want people to turn around and duck tolls. The exits are so widely spaced that you actually have to make an effort to miss yours, and they will certainly be more than happy to take more of your money because you’re a dummy. It’s a money-making business, not a charity.
Ah yes, the abandoned stretch of turnpike. I’d love to bike part of that sometime.
Though the fact that I’d have to go through Breezewood to do so is a downer. I spent a week in Breezewood one night…
Any time you want to, Robin and I will go with you, and we’ll avoid Breezewood completely if you want. The entrance at Tannery Road can be reached without ever going into Breezewood.
Yeah, but how can I get to Tannery Road without going through Breezewood? :eek:
Sucks to come from the West when traveling towards Robin and Doors.
It’d still be worth it, though. 
This is the very first time I’m encountering this usage of “oasis.” I take it that it means what I would call a “service plaza” or a “rest stop”?
Yes, but only for 20 minutes. In 1960.
I’m in general agreement is that the toll authorities are worried about drivers’ confusion, and losing toll revenue. And I’d say in inverse order.
The only new thing I can contribute to the conversation is that in the late 60s, which was the first time I drove on what was then, as I recall, called the “Tri-State Tollway,” the oases weren’t fast food. Each building over the tollway housed what we would call a coffee shop–think Formica counters and Naugahide booths–and also a more formal, “white table-cloth” restaurant. You could see the table-cloths (table-clothes?) through the windows as you drove under the oasis. But that’s a time when airports had formal restaurants, too.
Those were Fred Harveys, originally started to service the passenger train industry.
This is starting to sound like bad Springsteen lyrics:
Maria, I can’t get to Breezewood
Without headin’ down Tannery Road
But if you’ll wait for me at a white-cloth table at the Oasis
We could share the load
Here is a travel plaza on the NT Thruway that I stop in often:
Wouldn’t you be concerned that the dog might bite?
I can confirm first-hand that it doesn’t. The parking lots are seperated by a steel barricade, and there’s a section of removable barricade that clearly could allow turnarounds.
The Dekalb Oasis, however, is right between two highway exits. If you needed to turn around, just use an exit. No risk of being “trapped” for ten miles like the OP suggests.
Now, if you miss the westmost Dekalb exit and start heading towards Dixon, on the other hand…
I’ve never heard this usage of the word oasis. Is it the same as a rest stop?
When I opened the thread I thought this was going to be about camel trains and salt traders.
It appears to be used for a specific highway or highway system in the midwest. It’s not common usage out of the area it seems.
You must be male. An empty bottle is a, shall we say, less than optimal solution for most of us with concave plumbing. 
That’s what you get a funnel for, silly!
Why not go all-out and get a catheter? 