Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

anyone else. First, there was the VDOT spokeswoman telling truckers “to get a motel room” rather than park in one of their rest areas. Overnight parking in a VA rest area is illegal – there is a 2 hour limit. The limit is technically for cars, but according to OOIDA, the VA State Police are waking up truckers in rest areas citing the dinosaur unsafe law. I have personally be forced to park off an exit in VA when a nearby Pilot was full and the rest area was closed for “repairs.” Some local “Barney” banged on my bunk along with about 6 other trucks and ordered us to head down the road early in the morning. I’ve never had any great respect for the VA DOT or their “overzealous” law enforcement.

But there’s more. Virginia plans to close 19 “safety” rest areas to save $9 million dollars. The original closure number was 25 for $12 million. In addition, VDOT will seek Congressional authority to commercialize their remaining “safety” rest areas. A preliminary proposal to eliminate 225 truck parking spaces was dropped. But there will still be NO overnight parking allowed. The VDOT budget is $4.5 BILLION! It would seem to me for SAFETY sake to keep ALL their “safety” rest areas open – even EXPAND them with MORE truck parking and allowing overnight parking. If they want to save money, here’s a great idea – they can eliminate 1/3 of their useless bureaucratic overpaid VDOT staff and shut down all the weigh stations. That’ll save a bundle – far more than the $9. And Grandpa RV can still take a wiz, get a Coke and walk Fido. And I guarantee, all the truckers will be overjoyed.

But, there’s even more. Did you hear about this? Virginia, “Old Dominion”, the birthplace of 8 U.S. Presidents, where the Dogwood flourishes, one of the original Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolution – has BANNED smiling for your driver’s license photo! In a Washington Post article by Nick Miroff: “DMV officials say the smile ban is for a good cause. The agency would like to develop a facial recognition system that could compare customers’ photographs over time to prevent fraud and identity theft. "When asked how DMV employees are able to determine when customers might be smiling too much, DMV spokesperson Pam Goheen explained that the process is automated. Naturally, the new software is programmed to reject attempts at exuberance or human warmth. "It will send an error message if it detects a non-neutral expression," she said.

Virginia is definitely not for lovers.or truckers or anyone else.

Photo credits: http://virginiadot.org/travel/map-ra-skippersrest.asp, http://www.osovo.com/pics/sad/sad-faces04.jpg, http://lumiere.ens.fr/~alphapsy/blog/images/frowning.JPG AND the Washington Post article can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/27/AR2009052703627.html?hpid=topnews