Try having small children; drive through a can be a lifesaver because you don’t need to unbuckle them, get their winter clothes on, get them into the restaurant, wait in line, order the food to go, then wait for the food, and then reverse the steps to get back into the car. It’s a giant PITA to just get some French fries, chicken tenders, and carrot sticks, let alone the drastically increased exposure to germs associated with a crowded restaurant. You may have heard, there’s a pretty bad wave of Covid, influenza, and RSV right now. Not sharing air with other people is a big part of staying healthy right now.
You’re assuming to get to a location you need a car, that’s still car-centric design. If your primary argument for drive-throughs relies on the fact that you needed a car to reach the location in the first place then you’re missing the problem.
Shhhh we’re hating on cars now, it doesn’t matter that they’re a massive utility the improves the day to day life of millions upon millions of people. Also, we don’t do kids here. Something something capitalism.
Bring on the people movers and the monorails; I’m here for it, but I don’t want to get Covid again and as much as I despair of humanity, I have kids and so do millions of others so we should be working together to make a better world for current and future generations.
You should see how the Finnish treat their babies. Things like frostbite and frostnip don’t happen in the few seconds it takes to get from a car to a door. Yes, with small children, those 10 or 20 seconds might turn into 60, but they will be fine.
A low temperature in Alaska will affect you MUCH differently than low temperatures in say, BC which is much more humid and cuts into my bones at -1 where in Alaska/Yukon I’ve handled -34 and I’m mostly struggling to breath.
As long as it’s a quick jaunt into a heated facility, it should be fine with some moderate layers.
These days I live in Washington, not quite as cold as BC but mostly similar. Previously, I have lived in the Northeast of the US and the Northeast of Japan, which are both humid and quite cold and windy in the winter.
I agree with you and I live in Florida. I’d rather deal with the drive thru for the same reasons you listed.
Also, I won’t have to deal with trying to buckle a 2 & 4 year-old out of and back into their car seats, especially when it’s raining and 95*F. The 4 year old has ASD and refuses to be helped into the car so they throw a tantrum in the rain, and the 2 year old loses their mind just because.
There are things that people who don’t have/want kids can’t understand, and it’s an argument not worth having.
Not trying to downplay the right to your opinion but I feel like there has to be a better way to allow parents to enjoy options while also not making restaurants hostile to pedestrians
You may have noticed already that I disagree with your reasoning for using a drive-thru, but you are not wrong that they make life easier, and I’m not even saying that you shouldn’t use them. I’m just saying that kids can handle a brief bit of cold.
As a person who became disabled a few years back, I wish many, many more places would have drive through or order and pick-up without having to get out of your car. It’s a valuable service. I just think it’s over utilized by people who don’t need it, which is bad for the environment and not great for how little exercise people already get (walking from the back of the parking lot is not the end of the world, people).
The pandemic was kind of a lifesaver for a lot of us. Suddenly delivery options and order for pickup options have become available where we used to have to struggle to go into these places. It’s great. It’s not great for the environment or for most people’s health, but it’s great for those who really need it.
I was going to a local place until they shut down out of nowhere that had basically the same thing as a drive thru, but for foot traffic (you could go inside, or you could go to the side of the building and order from a window at the sidewalk). I could imagine even in a fully walkable city that you can’t drive in would have “walk thrus.”
There’s a small local burger chain by me which does this. They have a small hut for their restaurant, no inside seating. Drive-thru is on the right and walk-thru is on the left.
One of my favorite fast-food joints when I visited the states was Checkers. It was only walk-through and looked horrible to work in (Shed-sized building but one kitchen), but I liked the concept. It was easy to wander up, order food, chill, then maybe wander off somewhere else.
Without any cars to access or even reliably park (??), it was relaxing. A small slice of walker’s paradise where all of the scenery catered to our eyes instead of condensed seating areas surrounded by idling cars.
The real boring dystopia is the radical car-centrism of having a drive-thru at all to begin with.
Try having small children; drive through a can be a lifesaver because you don’t need to unbuckle them, get their winter clothes on, get them into the restaurant, wait in line, order the food to go, then wait for the food, and then reverse the steps to get back into the car. It’s a giant PITA to just get some French fries, chicken tenders, and carrot sticks, let alone the drastically increased exposure to germs associated with a crowded restaurant. You may have heard, there’s a pretty bad wave of Covid, influenza, and RSV right now. Not sharing air with other people is a big part of staying healthy right now.
You’re assuming to get to a location you need a car, that’s still car-centric design. If your primary argument for drive-throughs relies on the fact that you needed a car to reach the location in the first place then you’re missing the problem.
Shhhh we’re hating on cars now, it doesn’t matter that they’re a massive utility the improves the day to day life of millions upon millions of people. Also, we don’t do kids here. Something something capitalism.
Bring on the people movers and the monorails; I’m here for it, but I don’t want to get Covid again and as much as I despair of humanity, I have kids and so do millions of others so we should be working together to make a better world for current and future generations.
They don’t need to be super bundled up just going from the car to the restaurant and back.
Tell me you live somewhere temperate without telling me where you live. Have you been to much of the US in the winter?
I spent 5 years living in Alaska.
You’ve lived in Alaska for multiple winters and you aren’t worried about the problem with exposing small children to extreme cold?
You should see how the Finnish treat their babies. Things like frostbite and frostnip don’t happen in the few seconds it takes to get from a car to a door. Yes, with small children, those 10 or 20 seconds might turn into 60, but they will be fine.
A low temperature in Alaska will affect you MUCH differently than low temperatures in say, BC which is much more humid and cuts into my bones at -1 where in Alaska/Yukon I’ve handled -34 and I’m mostly struggling to breath.
As long as it’s a quick jaunt into a heated facility, it should be fine with some moderate layers.
These days I live in Washington, not quite as cold as BC but mostly similar. Previously, I have lived in the Northeast of the US and the Northeast of Japan, which are both humid and quite cold and windy in the winter.
I know winter.
That’s pretty cool :p
I agree with you and I live in Florida. I’d rather deal with the drive thru for the same reasons you listed.
Also, I won’t have to deal with trying to buckle a 2 & 4 year-old out of and back into their car seats, especially when it’s raining and 95*F. The 4 year old has ASD and refuses to be helped into the car so they throw a tantrum in the rain, and the 2 year old loses their mind just because.
There are things that people who don’t have/want kids can’t understand, and it’s an argument not worth having.
Maybe but if I had a choice between the two drive thrus would be out of here
I respect your perspective but as a parent, trust me, life is really freaking hard as it is. Making it harder is unconscionable.
Not trying to downplay the right to your opinion but I feel like there has to be a better way to allow parents to enjoy options while also not making restaurants hostile to pedestrians
You may have noticed already that I disagree with your reasoning for using a drive-thru, but you are not wrong that they make life easier, and I’m not even saying that you shouldn’t use them. I’m just saying that kids can handle a brief bit of cold.
As a person who became disabled a few years back, I wish many, many more places would have drive through or order and pick-up without having to get out of your car. It’s a valuable service. I just think it’s over utilized by people who don’t need it, which is bad for the environment and not great for how little exercise people already get (walking from the back of the parking lot is not the end of the world, people).
The pandemic was kind of a lifesaver for a lot of us. Suddenly delivery options and order for pickup options have become available where we used to have to struggle to go into these places. It’s great. It’s not great for the environment or for most people’s health, but it’s great for those who really need it.
Sonic works well without the drive through needed.
I was going to a local place until they shut down out of nowhere that had basically the same thing as a drive thru, but for foot traffic (you could go inside, or you could go to the side of the building and order from a window at the sidewalk). I could imagine even in a fully walkable city that you can’t drive in would have “walk thrus.”
There’s a small local burger chain by me which does this. They have a small hut for their restaurant, no inside seating. Drive-thru is on the right and walk-thru is on the left.
One of my favorite fast-food joints when I visited the states was Checkers. It was only walk-through and looked horrible to work in (Shed-sized building but one kitchen), but I liked the concept. It was easy to wander up, order food, chill, then maybe wander off somewhere else.
Without any cars to access or even reliably park (??), it was relaxing. A small slice of walker’s paradise where all of the scenery catered to our eyes instead of condensed seating areas surrounded by idling cars.