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Rest areas, counted

A rest area is only useful to a truck if it will take one, and only useful for a night if something is there. Both are counted — including how often nobody recorded the answer.

Australia

4,922 rest areas

Rest areas

4,922sites

1,972 take heavy vehicles

Take heavy vehicles

1,972

40% of all rest areas

Toilet on record

1,171

of 4,922 where it was recorded

Facilities

Toilets1,171 yes · 3,751 no · 0 not recorded(24% of those recorded)

100% surveyed

Picnic tables2,258 yes · 2,664 no · 0 not recorded(46% of those recorded)

100% surveyed

By type

  • Minor Rest Area1,469
  • Motorist Rest Area with facilities · 1 - 5 truck bays285
  • Class 5 Heavy Vehicle Rest Area231
  • Heavy Vehicle Rest Area227
  • Motorist Rest Area with facilities · None truck bays185
  • Light Vehicle Only Rest Area173
  • Motorist and Heavy Vehicle Rest Area (shared) with facilities · 6 + truck bays147
  • TRUCK PARKING BAY147
  • Motorist and Heavy Vehicle Rest Area (shared) with facilities · 1 - 5 truck bays134
  • Major Rest Area121
  • Class 4 Heavy Vehicle Rest Area112
  • Truck Parking Bays108

Where the data comes from

  • Main Roads Western Australia1,659
  • RADAR national rest area dataset1,332
  • Queensland Transport and Main Roads1,066
  • Transport for NSW865

New Zealand

185 rest areas

Rest areas

185sites

3 take heavy vehicles

Take heavy vehicles

3

2% of all rest areas

Toilet on record

8

of 31 where it was recorded

Facilities

Toilets8 yes · 23 no · 154 not recorded(26% of those recorded)

17% surveyed

Picnic tables6 yes · 1 no · 178 not recorded(86% of those recorded)

4% surveyed

By type

  • Rest area173
  • Service area12

Where the data comes from

  • OpenStreetMap (New Zealand)185

About these numbers

"Not recorded" is counted separately from "no", everywhere on this page. A rest area with no toilet field is not a rest area without a toilet, and a driver deciding where to spend the night is entitled to that difference. Percentages are taken over the sites where the answer was actually recorded, never over the whole list.

Australian rest areas come from federal and state road-authority asset registers, which audit each site and record what is there — so a "no" from those really means none.

New Zealand has no equivalent open register, so its rest areas come from OpenStreetMap. That means far fewer sites and far less detail per site: most carry a position and a name and nothing else. The gap in the numbers below is a gap in the public data, not a gap in New Zealand's roads.

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