"... lining the 570 miles of road that make up one of the largest toll highways in the country, stretching from the edge of the Bronx up past Buffalo. Whether participants were traveling for work or for pleasure, they had needs that apparently were going unfulfilled. Among those who identified as occasional users of the Thruway, more than half said they would like food halls with 'local artisan' offerings. Some commuters wanted Blue Apron meal kits. The resulting report listed as chief takeaways that leisure travelers complained about unappealing interiors and the lack of 'Instagrammable moments.'"
From "Must We Gentrify the Rest Stop? McDonald’s is gone, and the Manhattanization of the New York State Thruway has begun. Prepare to Instagram your pit stop" by Ginia Bellafante (NYT).
"The current reinvention will bring local farm stands, food trucks and, among some other fast food selections, the polarizing choices of Chick-fil-A, run by a red-state billionaire contributor to anti-LGBTQ causes, and Shake Shack, founded by a liberal billionaire restaurateur who came to prominence serving expensive food around Union Square."
Hard to understand the Chick-fil-A part. That doesn't seem Manhattan-y or gentrified. And aren't they closed on Sundays? That doesn't seem rest-stop appropriate.
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65 comments:
A Nation of Narcissists.
I like McDonalds but only eat it when I'm traveling.
Road stop McDonalds is a treat for me...
I hated driving the toll roads in New York State. I assume its there for the graft.
Sounds racist. What about DEI?
Anyway, why is the government even involved in this (other than selling the land)? Let the private sector decide what to offer.
Clean bathrooms? Who ARE these people?
Sometimes it's nice to get in the car and drive. Why shouldn't a pit stop be a mini destination? As the person resting, it sounds great.
However, who in the world will work there? As the person catering, it sounds like a nightmare. The costs would be astronomical. A manicured natural location with minimal necessities can be photogenic.
Last time I drove the Thruway I stopped in…Rotterdam? Waiting for my companions still inside I stopped at the tables set up advertising local wares. Syrup, some crafty crap. The guy at the table kind of gave me a polite hard sell. My companions appeared and I fave him a sincere thank you, but clearly he was pissed I didn’t take out my wallet.
We just had to pee, New York State Thuway…
I miss the Pilgrim hat with the arrow through it on the Mass Pike. No fun allowed…
I don't think I've visited a highway rest stop in the US since I was a child (if ever), but I do like the rest stops in Korea. They vary in size and quality, but mostly they have a good variety of tasty, inexpensive food, some festival-type food/snack stalls outside, convenience stores and other small shops for necessities, and copious and clean bathroom facilities. It's a tiny, densely populated country, though, so the US (which is immense and pretty empty in comparison) might not be able to support similarly sized rest stops on every route.
"Road stop McDonalds is a treat for me"
Me too. I never eat there except when I'm on the road. And I'm happy to find one. I was bummed that so many McDonald's dining rooms were closed during the Covid Craze.
People want to get where they are going. I need a rest stop to be clean and safe. I don’t stop for the culinary experience. Pretty sure no one who answered the survey asked for this silliness.
A time is coming when interstates are going to be mostly trailer trucks.
Thruway food is heavily marked up to exploit its captive market. It would be interesting to see the concession fees and kickbacks to the Thruway authority.
Where the food stands (like McD) are branches of national chains, you can compare what you're paying and get a sense of how badly you're being hosed. If they switch to local and one-off or less-known chains, that will get harder to do. And of course because it's a trendy local or specialized kind of outlet, you'll feel good about paying for ambiance. There's a busload of ambiance in a Thruway stop. Don't forget the T-shirt!
Been in 47 states. Might be 48 if including Delaware but I wouldn't have noticed.
New York's rest stops have the most facilities, the highest-end in terms of food and what not. This does not include getting off an interstate and finding local talent.
All very impressive but...I wouldn't pay an extra dime to get that over a gas station and a franchise burger joint. That's all I need. Buckee's excepted, which is an Experience, although if "toll road" is a requirement for eligibility, might not count.
I suspect the people who want this want somebody else to pay for it.
This is so stupid. Rest stops, by definition, cannot be gentrified. Gentrification only refers to people investing in an area and raising the property values so that minorities are priced out of living there. The whole point to a rest stop is to provide a place for travelers to go when there is no infrastructure nearby to provide restrooms and a place to relax. No one lives near rest stops on highways.
I like road trips but food selections along the way are my least favorite part. I am already traveling and less likely to eat as healthy as I prefer while I'm at my destination. But I also have to eat crap on my trips there and back?
In Florida, I look for Wawa gas stations as they have decent coffee and made to order sandwiches. The only downside is they have misleading signs. They tell you Wawa at this exit, but then it's 3+ miles away. It seems like Wawa is the biggest culprit but I don't know if it's them or the state of FL to blame.
Anyway, death to crap fast food on road trips! Of all the things future generations will look back in horror at this period of time in 100 years time, I have to believe fast food is one of them.
'Instagrammable moments.'
Groan.
It's almost as if the writer believes that African-Americans are not capable of gentrification. Isn't that racist??
Is Manhattanization good or bad???
"Instagram your pit stop".......dick pix anyone??
I want two things at a rest stop,a clean rest room and decent coffee. I'll bring my own food or get off the interstate to eat.
I have no doubt that a state government bureaucracy will smartly and efficiently decide what services and businesses these thru-way travelers really want and will pay for. This is a much better idea than any of that free market stuff. Look at Amtrak for example, those guys are customer satisfaction gods, especially the food!
Bring back Stuckeys!
New Hampshire knows what people want at a rest stop without some survey: Cheap liquor and cider donuts. They won’t even care the bathroom is a rest stop bathroom…
I don't think I've visited a highway rest stop in the US since I was a child (if ever), but I do like the rest stops in Korea.
I haven't been, but from what I've seen on the TV shows (lots of K-dramas) I watch, they look like pleasant places to stop and get food.
Among those who identified as occasional users of the Thruway, more than half said they would like food halls with 'local artisan' offerings. Some commuters wanted Blue Apron meal kits.
How "occasional"? What fraction of users does this represent? Will this fraction increase spending enough to pay for the identified "improvements"?
We should get clean toilets, reasonably priced fuel and food as good as or better than what we get at home served promptly with a smile
Side note: Government entities should publish results of their surveys in full. We paid for them and we're going to fund any changes, so we need full and complete disclosure. What fraction is "some commuters"?
I used to occasionally stop at the rest stops on the drive to Montreal. I always found them to be adequate as is. It amuses me to think of New Yorkers having the option to eat at a Chik-Fil-A. I would have preferred McDonalds, myself.
What louddogblog said. This is more like an Insider or a Daily Caller post… or the NYT is now days like the Daily Caller and Insider.
In Texas, we just let an entrepreneur do what they do, and we ended up with Buc-ee's.
Instagrammable (groan) moments?
Set up giant pictures on walls that depict the most instagrammable (groan) spots along the highway.
Gives an option to take pics, then head home. After all the entire point of travel is to take selfies.
Throw in some plastic, artistically displayed food at a table and you've taken care of the holiday - "Look what I ate" need.
Saves time, saves gas, saves the planet.
The eastern US has mid-highway access stops between the opposite directions of travel. These are huge islands with gas, food, and parking. They are different than most other parts of the country, and appear in Maryland and Delaware along I95. Please, please, please improve these traps! They are dirty, run down, expensive, many stores are often closed, and they generally unpleasant. But, they are convenient and were clearly designed in as kind of voluntary toll system. (Delaware is the master of gaming tolls too -- it's something like $8 plus $8 to drive on 50 miles of their highway from Maryland to Pennsylvania! Joe Biden, what say you?)
In the east you must typically leave the major interstates to find an independent stop, sometimes hidden by trees 1/4 to 1 mile away. But these place have better prices, are cleaner, and represent alternative options.
The west tends to not have government trap stops, just a long stretch of off-ramps with different options at each.
So, the main problem here is the government highway traps. But, easterners know no different. They also tolerate having terrible state liquor stores too.
For typingtalker.
Duke Dan said...
People want to get where they are going. I need a rest stop to be clean and safe.
Now, I'm Confused.. I was Told (By AUTHORITY FIGURES); that most people (ALL People!) WANT to: a) stop every 200 miles or so...
b) wait a while for a charger...
c) hook up to the charger, and get out; and ..
d) WAIT for 20 to 30 minutes (or More), for the charge,
i was TOLD (by AUTHORITY FIGURES); that THAT is How people WANTED to travel. A 45 min stop every 2 hrs
Now YOU'RE Saying, that 'People want to get where they are going. Something is NOT adding up
What I would like is a Waffle House that I don't need to leave the interstate for. Usually they are pretty close to the entrance/exits, so it works out fine.
I don't remember there being any rest stops on I87 north of Albany, but it's been decades since I did that drive into the Adirondacks. I guess things have changed.
The whole point of going to McDonalds when traveling away from home is that you know exactly what you are getting. When I'm in transit mode, I'm not looking for an adventure in eating. That's for when I reach my destination.
I only want two things in a rest stop: Minature Golf and a scotch on the rocks.
I'll find it one of these days.
So…at the thruway stop in Clifton Park- it’s technically not on the NYS Thuway…it’s on the Northway, 1-87…anyways…back in the day there was a high level politician I’ll let remain nameless but you can google it…but, his car was spotted at the Clifton Park rest stop which he didn’t deny…a place known as a place where men would gather…the politician said he needed to take a leak but based on where he was and where he was going it meant he was driving southbound and exited and drove northbound for several miles, passing gas stations and fast food for several miles…draw your own conclusion…
I don't find a need to eat on the road. There will be food at my destination.
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Don't Laugh But Saint Croix Is In Hell and You Put Him There
Satan: "Where the fuck is my ham?"
Saint Croix:
Satan: "Tell me where my ham is motherfucker!"
Saint Croix:
Satan: "I am going to fuck you up the ass with a rolled up New York City phone book covered in honey and sperm."
Saint Croix:
Satan: "This is so fucking boring! Say something!
Saint Croix:
Satan: "I want cries of agony, motherfucker!"
Saint Croix:
Satan: "Who the fuck stripped you of your vocal cords?"
Saint Croix:
Satan: "I can't hear you scream? This is boring as shit!"
Saint Croix:
Satan: "You stay there on all fours and think about what you said."
Saint Croix:
Satan: "Vote for Hillary!"
Whatever happened to hojos and Hot Shoppes?
Up to the 70s hojos (or was it hot shoppers?) used to have a monopoly on the nyt
John Henry
I remember the old days on the MassPike when it was cash and some guy at the Alston-Brighton adds your toll to his wad of cash and you drive on, but the light never goes green, but in New Hampshire, on the Daniel Webster Highway, the money went in the drawer and the green paid light came on every time. I assumed that you had to have helped a politician get elected in Massachusetts to get a job as a toll ‘taker.’
I like the NY Thruway rest stops, but not for the food. But for some backlit signs at one of the, i wouldn't have known about Boldt Castle. Haven't been there yet, because it's not on the way to anyplace we go, but it would make a worthwhile side trip.
Ohio has the best toll road oases, but the PA Turnpike (which we avoid due to the egregious cost which was just raised by 5% this year), has mostly substandard facilities.
I’ve traveled much of the country. I use rest stops for rest. I exit for food, even on toll roads.
The best rest by far I’ve been to is the Tioga County Rest Area, first rest stop southbound on I-99 leaving NY going into PA.
Another really nice one is at Whitney’s Point southbound on I-81 in NY.
And the Sideling Hill Welcome Center on I-68 westbound in MD is also a pretty nice one.
And those are the only 3 I can recall as being really nice rest areas worth walking around and stretching your legs at and enjoying the view.
Maybe some others here can recommend others, but I can’t. All of those have really nice views and are well maintained for their primary purpose of being a rest stop.
If I’m on the NY Thruway the only reason I stop is to use the bathroom followed by a quick departure.
This week I turn 56 and most of my relatives live in Upstate New York. I don't know how many times how many hours we travelled along the New York Thruway. My mom now lives just a couple miles from the Thruway.
What I remember growing up was how pathetic were stops along the Thruway. Restaurants more like overgrown school cafeterias. Food quality almost British. As an adult I saw Thruway stops radically renovated to have decent restaurants (McDonald's, Sbarro, Chik-Fil-A, Starbucks, and so on). They've become pleasant places to stop, visit restroom, get something to eat or drink, fill up the car.
I drove from Poughkeepsie to Buffalo a few months back. It was a crappy experience. The road was fine, but most of the rest stops were closed due to construction (the construction talked about here, apparently)—which became a problem as the gas gauge dropped and I got hungry. When I finally found a McDonald’s that was open, it was, of course packed. And dirty and gross. And it took about half an hour to get my food.
@Gospace - The Sideling Hill Exhibit Center is now permanently closed. Too expensive to maintain. But the Sideling Hill cut is still amazing. It's on Interstate 68 between Hagerstown and Hancock, Maryland.
Here in PA and in NJ, it is a thing to get Roy Rodgers. Fried chicken, burgers and the fixin' bar. Highlight of any turnpike trip. They have added Starbucks. The Amish have produce stands in summer, never on Sunday.
“I don't find a need to eat on the road. There will be food at my destination.”
Exactly. A well-maintained Porto-let system every 2–300 miles would be more than sufficient. By the way, are all these tollways, from Illinois to New Jersey, all run by the Mafia or is it just my imagination every time I’m there?
If they'd allow a liquor and fireworks concession they might get some Instagrammable moments.
If you care to experience consistently wonderful -- and utterly unpretentious (or urban snobbish) -- highway pit stops, food especially, you can't beat Switzerland. Austria is a solid second place, and some of them actually offer wine. I've driven all over Western and Central Europe (in my work as an agronomist) and speak all the languages either fluently or comfortably: I never heard anyone but American and British tourists complain, always in English.
The stops vary in style and provender [e.g. plates of pickled herring or smoked eel in Denmark], but the coffee and the food are almost universally good. And I've never once had to straddle a "splash zone" in the men's WC, yet Switzerland tops them all, regardless of linguistic/cultural region. The only downside? The Swiss Franc [CHF] is consistently worth a bit more than a US dollar, greatly limiting one's inclination to enjoy their excellent offerings.
Chick-fil-A will be located on the South bound side of the highway, probably.
On the Jane Addams toll road (90) the midway rest stop has Panera--nothing like their sour dough French bread. Bathroom is clean too (at least, the women's is).
I hated all the Howard Johnson pit stops along the Kansas turnpike.
Turnpikes are awful anyway. Not my thing.
I love the freeways of the west and the variety of eateries compared to those blasted HoJo's..
Jim Gust,
I 87 south of Albany is NY thru way, a toll road.
I87 north of Albany is a non-toll interstate.
Interstates are generally forbidden to charge tolls. Some, like NY, NJ and some others were grandfathered in.
I think that non-toll interstates are generally not permitted to have services on them. Other than rest stops with bathrooms, tourist info and such.
John Henry
A warning on chik-fil-a
I love cfa but until last month we didn't have any in pr. As I was working near one I lunched there about 4 days running.
I got hit by a massive, crippling, gout attack requiring a visit to the VA emergency room.
Investigation found that they fry the chicken in peanut oil. I do not have an allergy in the normal sense to peanuts but even a spoonful of peanut butter can trigger an attack.
So, a word of caution.
Also re cfa, in 2021 they had $6,100,000 sales per store
McDonald's was $3,420,000
A few others were in the $4,000 range. None in the 5.
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/content/top-50-fast-food-chains-2021
I sure wish I'd been the marketing wizard who stirred up the LGBT boycott. I'll bet they got a nice bonus for that promo.
John Henry
I dunno if a survey got it started but a big story a few years back was the brothel
kinda place they had going at the rest stop just passed Paynes Prairie on 75.
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You can go anywhere.
Prepping for the electric car age where you will need to stop for 20 minutes or so to recharge the vehicle.
Why aren’t the rest stop restaurants determined by an open bidding system for each stop? Just like the rest of the country, let the consumers decide with their wallet, and unprofitable restaurants will stop bidding. I’m thinking the best result is a food court sort of layout like those used on many college campuses. There may need to be some infrastructure investment for buildings, bathrooms, etc. but that cost should be borne by toll road users. A survey is a bad way to make such decisions.
LoudDogBlog - exactly... 1:49
Meade - Our nation is run my the mob.
"Some commuters wanted Blue Apron meal kits."
These people must be hunted down and killed.
loudogblog said...
Gentrification only refers to people investing in an area and raising the property values so that minorities are priced out of living there.
I don't think anybody uses 'gentrification' with that kind of specificity. It's certainly not limited to displacement of minorities, and quite easily applies to any situation where investment has the impact of raising prices for goods and services beyond the means of some current customers.
For Rabel ...
Thanks for the link to the survey. A few comments ...
The on-line survey was available for approximately four months.
Surveys were completed by 2,645 participants.
47.7% completion rate.
Average time to complete: 9:12 (I assume that is Minutes:Seconds)
The response was a little thin. That doesn't mean the results are wrong, but it isn't encouraging. It may be presented as a data point but looks more like a big fuzzy data puff pulled from a cloud.
The occasional rest stop--restroom, vending, maps on the wall--parking for semi drivers to nap--is generally sufficient. For the rest, every so often, depending on where you are, there are amenities--usually fast food of whatever brand, sometimes motels, gas, at interchanges. This allows for local business as well. Sometimes it's a mile down the road, sometimes right at the bottom of the exit.
But you need to be sure. Going into Utah some years ago, stopped at a welcome center and talked to an attendant. Down here, she said, there's only ranch roads at exits. Nothing else. One hundred twenty-six miles. Imagine shortly after one in the morning, your gas gauge warning light on and no cell service....
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