Even in NYC, you're still a yokel until you see the world's largest McDonalds in Vinitia, Oklahoma. :)
Posted on 11/15/2004 5:00:26 AM PST by cbkaty
Nov. 15, 2004, 12:48AM
On The Road
Rest stops to offer wireless Internet Free wireless access to the Internet will soon be available at 102 highway rest stops across Texas. ADVERTISEMENT
The Texas Department of Transportation announced last month that it has signed an agreement with Road Connect, an Austin-based company, to install wireless access points at the rest areas within the next year.
Seven rest areas already provide access to the World Wide Web using wireless fidelity.
Andy Keith, TxDOT's rest area program manager, said those access points will be upgraded to provide additional services.
Five vendors submitted proposals this past summer to connect the rest areas, giving truckers and other travelers with laptop computers the ability to check e-mail, surf the Web and obtain road condition and weather reports.
Access will be free for two hours, after which charges will be assessed.
The project begins with rest stops on U.S. 90 near Hondo and Interstate 10 near Columbus. Installations there should be finished by year's end.
Road Connect will provide the wireless service at no charge to the state.
It hopes to make money by selling sponsorships and excess minutes.
The company has agreed to install Internet kiosks at the rest areas for travelers without a computer.
Road conditions site is upgraded TxDOT recently launched a more user-friendly highway conditions page travelers can access on the Internet.
The upgraded site, www.dot.state.tx.us, features a Texas map that displays real-time updates on construction, poor weather or incidents expected to close a road or cause delays of at least half an hour.
From the homepage, click the "Road Conditions" icon and then "View Current Conditions."
"We have been able to greatly improve the system and make it much easier to use," said Mike Behrens, TxDOT executive director.
"We recommend that anyone planning a trip in Texas check our Web site before they hit the road."
That'll be good so truckers can keep in contact with families.
The Hondo rest stop is new and very nice.... Instead of building a stop on each side of the freeway, they put it in the middle of the right of way and rebuilt the highway around it... Let's just say I had never been impressed with a rest stop in my life.....know what I mean?
Don't truckers have cell phones? I have 5000 anytime minutes in the US a month as long as I am talking to another cell phone. I can sure keep in touch with that.
If they have laptops, then wirless hotspots would be great. I've seen the inside of some cabs and these guys got everything but the kitchen sink *lol*
There's a gas station like that here in New York. It's weird... *lol* a gas station in the middle of the highway.
(steely)
I bet there will be freepers reporting on line from one of the stops very soon! Be nice at the stops...you may be smiling at a freeper.....
Even in NYC, you're still a yokel until you see the world's largest McDonalds in Vinitia, Oklahoma. :)
OMG *lol*
First time I saw that thing was after 13 hours of driving at about 2 in the morning... I thought the mothership had come for me.
We stopped at one of those over-the-road McDonalds in MY on the 90 route to Niagara Falls. If you looked out the window on to the roadway, one of the road repair crews had used crack sealant to draw a big smiley face with a cowboy hat in the middle of the road.
Shouldn't they provide toilets first? Last I time went south, the rest stops still had only ladders over a fence so people could get to a bush.....
So would I *lol*
(Shouldn't they provide toilets first? Last I time went south, the rest stops still had only ladders over a fence so people could get to a bush.....)
In South Texas they could use that money to plant more bushes, have you ever did the 25 mile dance?
That McDonald's is the coolest
In Texas the stops you are describing are "Picnic Areas" ...not "Rest Stops".... REALLY! GRIN
>>Access will be free for two hours, after which charges will be assessed.
I've already seen some internet dispensers at rest areas;
you swipe a credit card and get charged for how many minutes you use--can get email, surf web, etc. Have had these for a few years. Prob. in airports, too.
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