Talk:Motorway service area

Types

A reading of the DoT document suggests that there are three types of services:

• On-line - services that have access to and from one motorway only
• Junction - services that are accessed directly from a junction
• Off-line - services that are located within the local community (found on A roads, but not on motorways).

Martinvl (talk) 05:33, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Off-line is quite an ambiguous term, with motorway services (which is what this article refers to) I think it means off-junction, as like you say 'proper' off-line motorway services aren't allowed. I say this because the same document later talks about 'online vs. offline' motorway services. I think it's best if we don't use any of those terms at all! NotJohnny (talk) 12:07, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Why?

As a foreigner, reading this article leaves me with a very confused idea of what these actually are. Are these just servos where you can buy petrol, coffee, and newspapers; are they agglomerations of motels and things like the American strip malls, or what? Why do they exist? Couldn't people just stop in towns along the way? Wikitorrens^T 03:47, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

It is confusing, even for a person in the U.K.! For example there’s a disconnect in linking the bit that mentions the opening of the first one, with the info that more operators got involved - without mentioning who operated the first one, why it should’t be that every services area be operated by a different company or owner, and omitting the operator of the second services (Forte) when they went on to be one of the biggest companies involved.

I don’t know what you mean by “servo”, it’s not a term with which I am familiar, but our motorway services are a combination of petrol station, lorry- and car-parks, a restuarant/ café (although many now seem to operate a food-court type system with a coffee-shop chain, a burger outlet and/ or other fast food, etc. and a central table area), a paper and sundries shop, a mini-market, toilet and shower facilities, and often a video-arcade. There may be a hotel chain on site as well.

They exist because generally speaking you wouldn’t come off a motorway to go into a town to go back onto a motorway, when as the article says they are sited road-side. I don’t think this pattern is unique to the U.K. however - the Dutch motorways have them too, possibly even more frequently, as there is legislation on their books about taking a break every two hours if driving, to avoid fatigue, which may be another reason for them here. Jock123 (talk) 21:40, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

To expand on Jock123's comments: I would think most countries that are large enough to have a motorway network would have them or something of the sort. You try coming off a motorway into a town you've never been to before and finding your way to the nearest fuel station, the nearest café or the nearest public toilets! If it's the middle of the night, just try finding one that's open in this unfamiliar town! Think also about the amount of time it would take to get there off the motorway and then come back onto the motorway afterwards. I think this explains why service stations exist - they enable you to access these facilities quickly and easily while on a long motorway journey. — Smjg (talk) 21:53, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

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Intervals between service stations

I am aware from the pages on some individual service stations that there are national guidelines on how frequent service stations should be. I think this article would benefit from that but I am not an expert. Anyone able to step up?Johnstoo (talk) 09:32, 6 November 2019 (UTC) Update: I have added the current requirements on intervals between service stations from the DfT 2008 Circular, along with much more detail from the same circular about other requirements. But I am not an expert and this should probably be seen as a work in progress. Johnstoo (talk) 17:13, 14 November 2019 (UTC)