Rest area
A rest area with limited to no public facilities is a lay-by, parking area, scenic area, or scenic overlook. Along some highways and roads are services known as wayside parks, roadside parks, or picnic areas.
Prior to the creation of the Interstate Highway System, many states east of the Rocky Mountains had already started building and operating their own long-distance intercity toll roads (turnpikes). To help recover construction costs, most turnpike operators leased concession space at rest areas to private businesses. In addition, the use of this sort of service area allows drivers to stop for food and fuel without passing through additional tollbooths and thereby incurring a higher toll.
Pennsylvania, which opened the first such highway in 1940 with the mainline Pennsylvania Turnpike, was the model for many subsequent areas. Instead of operating the service areas themselves, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission opted to lease them out to Standard Oil of Pennsylvania (which was acquired shortly afterward by the modern-day franchised gas megacorporation) which in turn operated a gas station with a garage and restaurant franchises as a restaurant offering. The turnpike currently leases the gas station space to a gas station (which operates retail convenience stores instead of garages at the sites) and, as of 2021, the rest of the service area space to Applegreen.
In the summer of 2021, Iris Buyer LLC (an Applegreen company) announced that they were acquiring all travel plazas by HMSHost. The deal reached an agreement at the end of July 2021 officially transferring ownership. The New York State Thruway Service Areas (which will be owned by another company by Applegreen) was not affected by this transition since Host's contract was expired. As of July 2022, the following states have service areas operated or have stakes by Applegreen (CT, DE, IN, ME, MA, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WV).
Some turnpikes, such as Florida's Turnpike, were never integrated into the Interstate system and never became subject to the federal ban on private businesses. On turnpikes that did become Interstates, all privatized rest areas in operation before January 1, 1960, were allowed to continue operating.
Text stops
In 2013, the state of New York launched "It Can Wait", a program for encouraging drivers to pause at rest stops and parking areas along state roads to text (thereby avoiding texting while driving), by designating all such areas "text stops". The practice involves placing road signs which indicate the nearest "texting zone" at which to legally stop and use mobile devices such as smartphones.
Welcome centers
Welcome centers in the United States
State welcome centers are often located near state or municipal borders in the United States.
A rest area often located near state or municipal borders in the United States is sometimes called a welcome center. Welcome centers tend to be larger than regular rest areas, and are staffed at peak travel times with one or more employees who advise travelers as to their options. Some welcome centers contain a small museum or at least a basic information kiosk about the state. Because air travel has made it possible to enter and leave many states without crossing the state line at ground level, some states, like California, have official welcome centers inside major cities far from their state borders. In some states (such as Massachusetts), these rest areas are called tourist information centers and in others (such as New Jersey), visitor centers.
Other types
Rest areas without modern restrooms are called 'waysides'. These locations have parking spaces for trucks and cars, or semi-trailer trucks only. Some have portable toilets and waste containers. In Missouri, these locations are called 'Roadside Parks' or 'Roadside Tables'.
The most basic parking areas have no facilities of any kind; they consist solely of a paved shoulder on the side of the highway where travelers can rest for a short time. A scenic area is similar to a parking area, but it is provided to the traveler in a place of natural beauty. These are also called scenic overlooks.