Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities

[Steely Dan]

The drive through restaurant is one of the worst urban design scourges ever delivered upon Chicago (and countless other US cities).

And this stupid-ass city keeps allowing them to be built!

Chick-fil-A wants to build one of it's shit-acular mega drive-thrus at a busy intersection a couple miles south of me. Fortunately, the surrounding community is pushing back against it, but we'll see if it has any effect.

Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities
They’re great for the fast food industry — but not so great for us.
By Marina Bolotnikova
Updated Apr 9, 2024, 9:06am EDT

Just outside St. Louis, in the inner-ring suburb of University City, there’s a little neighborhood often called the region’s unofficial Chinatown. Growing up in the area, it was one of my favorite places to be; reflective of the city’s diversity and vitality, it opened up the world to me. This past December, when I went home for the holidays, I discovered that what was once a beloved strip of immigrant- and minority-owned businesses there — a Korean grocery, a pho shop, a Jamaican joint with vegetarian options, a Black-owned barber shop — had been bulldozed and replaced by a double-lane drive-through Chick-fil-A.

Across the street, another strip was torn down to make way for a Raising Cane’s and a Chipotle, both also equipped with drive-throughs.

This part of town was never exactly the height of urban design; it had long been sprawly, car-oriented, and not great for walking. But the redevelopment gave it another character entirely. Before, the businesses there were destinations you could walk to if you wanted. Now, an enormous concrete retaining wall was built outside the Chick-fil-A, closing it off from sidewalk access like a fortress to fast food capitalism. The place had become so hostile to anyone outside a car that no one was going to get in there on foot. It was not a destination, but a place meant to be driven through — which is to say, no place at all.

Full article: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24...fil-a-chipotle

[Klippenstein]

Chicago is not built to accommodate today's mega drive-throughs and that's a good thing IMO. We should stick to our strengths instead of trying to force something that we're not. There's plenty of room for those in the burbs.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

Chicago is not built to accommodate today's mega drive-throughs and that's a good thing IMO.

That doesn't stop the fuckwits running the fast food industry from shoehorning them in where they can.

Check out the newish Portillo's at Addison/Kimball as an example. Straight outta fucking Schaumburg.

Though, I suppose the true fuckwits are the idiots at city Hall who allow this crap to be built in the first place.

[iheartthed]

I guess this is the New York obliviousness talking, but I didn't know Raising Cane's even had drive-throughs. Apparently there's one in South Brooklyn with a drive-through, but I've never seen it. I also don't think I'd ever even heard of this chain before 12 months ago, but now they're suddenly popping up everywhere around here along with Dave's Hot Chicken.

[Crawford]

The pandemic turbocharged drive-thru design. Now restaurants are commonly built with no seating, and a double drive-thru. It's pretty dystopian.

Since the pandemic, chains like Panera are basically closing every suburban-style outlet that doesn't have an existing drive-thru. And chains that never had drive-thrus, like Outback and Applebees, are buildings new drive-thru-focused outlets. End-times level bad.

[badrunner]

From the linked article:





Might as well just go back to this. It'll make better use of space.


https://www.timeout.com/usa/news/dri...omeback-051220

[SIGSEGV]

I've never understood drivethroughs. Unless there's nobody else using it, it's much easier to just park and go inside...

[Crawford]

Can someone explain why Americans wait in drive-thru food/pharmacy/whatever lines for 30 minutes when they could walk in and transact in 2 minutes? Bizarre.

You see a Starbucks with a drive-thru line extending forever, and there's no one inside. So weird.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Can someone explain why Americans wait in drive-thru food/pharmacy/whatever lines for 30 minutes when they could walk in and transact in 2 minutes? Bizarre.

The home of the stupid, and the land of the lazy!

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Can someone explain why Americans wait in drive-thru food/pharmacy/whatever lines for 30 minutes when they could walk in and transact in 2 minutes? Bizarre.

You see a Starbucks with a drive-thru line extending forever, and there's no one inside. So weird.

That picture was probably during covid, but an average In-N-Out looks like that all day every day. The line moves pretty quick but it's usually faster to just go order inside.

[akscully]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Can someone explain why Americans wait in drive-thru food/pharmacy/whatever lines for 30 minutes when they could walk in and transact in 2 minutes? Bizarre.

You see a Starbucks with a drive-thru line extending forever, and there's no one inside. So weird.

I believe Starbucks prioritizes drive-thru/mobile orders so depending on the time of day, it may actually be faster to stay in the car unless you've ordered ahead.

That's more of a symptom of the problem though.

[Obadno]

AHHH CARS AND ROADS IN CITIES


GAHHHHHH AHHHH THIS IS THE WORSt

[Crawford]

Sorry, but 40-50,000 annual deaths from autos (and many multiples of injuries) isn't funny stuff. Building extreme car-oriented environments contributes to these mass deaths/injuries. Complete auto-centricity creates dead environments and furthers mass social isolation.

And drive-thrus are about the worst type of auto-oriented development, combining mass parking with additional curb cuts & a new privatized roadway.

[ChrisLA]

I hate drive throughs, and my wife loves them. I wonder if women like them like my wife because if she feels like she don’t look halfway decent she refused to go inside. She like to say she’s not appropriately dressed, so for her it’s a god send. She also says certain stores in our area are too stuck up and women and unless she dressed up she will go to one out of the area that’s more down to earth. I personally don’t get it but she like to say men aren’t judged the same so I can go in looking tore up and no one thinks twice.

I don’t like the fact that you’re stuck if you get tired of waiting and can’t leave until the drive through clears out. I also don’t like the double lanes that merged into one and you always get some idiot who don’t want to follow the protocol and not yield. In N Out lines can be the worst. There is one in the west valley that traffic coming from two opposite direction and some idiot will come from the opposite side and cut the line. It’s too stressful for me and I just find it’s easier to go inside and order, it’s also much quicker. Also people are crazy now days, I known of too many people getting shot in drive throughs, where can you go if someone is approaching you with a gun, a guy got killed at a Starbucks in a drive through in LA.

I don’t typically go to Starbucks but on occasion if I need a fix I just order through the app and go inside to pick it up, but I do this with any store or food establishment that offer this option. Having a kid that’s running all over the place, we just find it much more convenient. We avoid going in any place that has toys period.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Obadno

AHHH CARS AND ROADS IN CITIES


GAHHHHHH AHHHH THIS IS THE WORSt

Yeah, it's too much to ask for a least a few places in America that don't totally fucking suck.

It should all be equally shitty everywhere!!!

[SIGSEGV]

nah bro, Paris would be improved by tearing down a bunch of buildings for some Panera drivethroughs.

[mhays]

This is an urbanist board. Oh no, people like urbanism here!

That aerial shows one of the problems...at least one asshole blocking a crosswalk, and two others who might be.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The pandemic turbocharged drive-thru design. Now restaurants are commonly built with no seating, and a double drive-thru. It's pretty dystopian.

Since the pandemic, chains like Panera are basically closing every suburban-style outlet that doesn't have an existing drive-thru. And chains that never had drive-thrus, like Outback and Applebees, are buildings new drive-thru-focused outlets. End-times level bad.

What I have definitely seen is restaurants being more geared towards Uber-eats than actual in restaurant eaters. We just went to this restaurant that we used to love to go to and they have cut their sit down space in half and opened up a big counter for all the uber eats take-out orders.
The drive thrus are just another symptom of people preferring to eat the restaurant food at home. Similar phenomena to Netflix vs empty movie theaters.

edit -- and Amazon vs empty malls, and working from home vs empty office towers.

[Steely Dan]

America: nation of lazy hermits

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Obadno

AHHH CARS AND ROADS IN CITIES


GAHHHHHH AHHHH THIS IS THE WORSt

AHHHH LAWNS IN THE DESERT THIS IS THE BEST