Welcome to the Roadscapes Wednesday segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Roadscapes Wednesday will feature roads and infrastructure related topics. Geek Alabama Editor / Publisher Nathan Young is often called the “road geek” for a good reason, Nathan loves roads and loves talking about roads!
Interstate Highway System. Over 48,000 miles of continuous concrete, asphalt, and spectacular sunsets spanning a continent. It is one of the greatest public works projects in human history. To keep the lifeblood of American commerce moving, engineers designed a sprawling network of rest areas spaced along interstates to keep drivers safe and alert.
But pull into one of these rest areas and you won’t find a gas station or a hot meal. In a highway system built for speed and convenience, the absence of fuel isn’t an engineering oversight. It is a federal law. Follow along as I uncover the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and those political compromises that made gas and hot food illegal at rest areas, the loopholes that allow service plazas on certain American highways. Also exploreing electrical vehicle charging at Interstate Rest Areas with the Recharge Act.
Categories: Roadscapes Stuff
