Sex shops proliferate into small towns

"The cities have gone so crazy with zoning, it's difficult to find places to open stores," says Mark Kerns, a senior editor of Adult Video News. "Where else are they going to go but outside the city?"

About half of "freeway porn" stores are corporately owned. They are legally seeking to expand their legitimate business, says Kat Sunlove, an adult movie actress turned lobbyist.

Demand for pornography is as strong as ever. Last year, the porn industry produced 11,000 movie "titles" compared with fewer than 1,000 movies produced by Hollywood, Kerns says. There are 3,000 stores that exclusively sell adult videos along with 25,000 video stores that have "adults only" sections, he says.