Safety Rest Areas

Safety Rest Areas

Safety Rest Areas are open year round. They are located on the Interstate highway system and other major four-lane highways. Wisconsin has 28 Safety Rest Areas, with amenities such as:

  • Restroom facilities
  • Car and truck parking
  • Drinking water
  • Handicap accessibility
  • Picnic areas
  • Road maps and other traveler information
  • Places to walk your pet
  • Snacks and drinks from the vending services at most locations
  • Recycling areas
  • Wisconsin Historical Marker plaques commemorating historical facts and events
Rest area 

Looking for a Safety Rest Area?

Use the WisDOT roadside facilities map to easily locate Safety Rest Areas, waysides, scenic overlooks, historical markers, or parking turnouts.

Lost and found

For lost items, visit roadsidefacilities.org to contact Disability Service Provider Network (DSPN) for assistance in looking for the lost item.

Comments

We welcome your comments and suggestions:

  • Which Safety Rest Area and/or wayside you visited
  • Date and time you were there
  • What you liked or didn't like

511 Wisconsin
Visit 511 to view current traffic information and find Safety Rest Areas along your route

Visit a Welcome Center for Travel Information

Safety Rest Areas in Beloit, Kenosha and La Crosse are also Welcome Centers and provide travel information about events and attractions.

At Welcome Centers you can also pick up free travel guides, maps and brochures. Staff are also on-site to help you plan your trip.

Wisconsin travel logo 

In December 2016, WisDOT joined several other Midwestern states by installing a Truck Parking Information Management System (TPIMS) to usher in the next generation of track parking technology.

TPIMS uses sensors and cameras to create real-time information about the availability of truck parking. Drivers can monitor for open parking spaces using tools such as dynamic roadside signs. TPIMS enhances safety and efficiency by helping commercial truck drivers plan rest periods without having to exit the freeway and waste time and fuel looking for appropriate space. Learn more about TPIMS.


The recycling area at a wayside.

Please use the provided trash containers and recycling bins and help keep Wisconsin's secondary sites clean.

A comprehensive team of people work cooperatively behind the scenes to keep our secondary sites clean, safe and in good working order:

  • Local Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRP), through the Rest Area Maintenance (RAM) program, provide the day-to-day maintenance at each safety rest area and some waysides. The CRPs provide employment for nearly 400 people with disabilities who might otherwise have limited employment opportunities.
  • Disability Service Provider Network (DSPN), a private non-profit organization, is responsible for direction of the CRPs at secondary sites.
  • Counties are responsible for snow plowing at waysides and the maintenance of some waysides.
  • WisDOT's Bureau of Highway Maintenance is responsible for overseeing the statewide wayside operation

A historical marker at Safety Rest Area 11 describes the history of rest areas:

"Early roadside rest areas consisted of rural school grounds and country churchyards with their two little 'houses' in back.
In Wisconsin, by 1920, curves were built to eliminate sharp road corners. Local garden clubs, with the American Legion and Auxiliary, began to beautify many of the resulting triangles with flowers and shrubs. Motorists used these places to relax and picnic.In 1931 the Wisconsin Legislature authorized highway beautification, and later the familiar waysides – small roadside parks at first, and for many years, with no water or sanitation.
In 1940, garden and women’s clubs, the Legion, the Wisconsin Friends of Our Native Landscape and others organized the Wisconsin Roadside Council, joined by the County Highway and County Boards Associations, to aid the State Highway Commission in roadside development and increasing and improving waysides.
Through such initiatives Wisconsin gained the experience to become one of the very first states to provide these modern, full-facility I-Road safety rest areas you now enjoy approximately every 50 miles."

Wisconsin Historical Marker plaques, commemorating historical facts and events are located on-site at many safety rest areas and waysides.

For more information about historical markers, visit the secondary sites page.

history mark
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