Should Cities Ban Drive Thrus?
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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Drive thru lanes may be convenient, but some cities are labeling them as nuisances. They cause traffic, generate emissions, and can cause restaurants to abandon in-person dining. Should they be banned, or is that too far?
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Can you share more about the seminar course? What town in the Catskills did you work with?
this One bout go Viral wooo
@@vjspicer We worked with the Village of Liberty on an Economic Development Strategic Plan. This was back in 2003!
Not just drive thrus, but driving. Each neighborhood should be pedestrian only interior and vehicles on the perimeter
I can't imagine driving up to a restaurant, seeing 33 cars already in the drive thru, and willingly becoming the 34th.
There's a reason I do mobile orders. I only use the drive-thru nowadays if it's literally the only way I can pick the order up, which doesn't happen often. More often I park and walk inside.
So True. That’s when I decide to just settle for Burger King.
You’ll get thru a Chik Fil A with 30 cars faster than a Wendy’s with 3 cars.
One of my pet peeves that I often see these days are places that have a super long drive thru line while *almost no customers are in the store.*
How lazy and car dependent have we become? 😭You literally could order instantly without the wait if you just take one minute to park your car and walk inside. But people would rather wait +20 minutes if it saves them from walking even one step.
@@thebasketballhistorian3291 its designed like that..
you burn more fuel and spend more money that way
I feel like eliminating indoor seating at these places would make the drive thru demand (and the issues with backups) worse, because now you’ve removed any other options for people, and cars take up much more space than some tables and chairs.
Fr, Parking in a world with altered drive thru would be horrifying, especially if people do hang out, then there goes one of a few spots for maybe hours.
Most of the fast food near me has effectively already eliminated indoor options, esp if you don't want to use the app or the self service. Can't fine a person to order, hours inside cut sharply and so on.
My first thought when seeing that Chick-Fil-A is rebuilding locations with more drive thru lanes to meet demand is that it will have a similar effect as building more lanes on roads and highways. Increase in capacity is swiftly followed by increase in demand.
It does. These companies see monetary benefits on doing more drives thrus and in the US that is all they care about.
Unless people park at at the "restaurant".
I tried to go through the drive through on my bicycle one time and way denied because it wasn’t a car.
Me too. I’ve always hated that. They close the dining area before the drive thru, but the only way to access is with a car. It’s feels wrong. Like it shouldn’t be legal to deny people service based on how they get the the restaurant….
Worked at a fast food restaurant where, during covid, this older gentleman came through the drive thru on a motorized wheelchair.
Me and everyone thought, "Ooh! No one's here! Let's clean this place up." Which we did until someone came to the door asking about whether or not we were ignoring the dude. None of us knew there was anyone there so we check our headsets to see if the batteries died on us and we didn't realize. Just to hear "wheelchair" and go "Wtf?!"
All in all, that break was needed and saught after in that moment.
A few Wendy's have set up walk up windows for late night orders and pickups by Doordash, other services.
same, and the dining room was closed
In taiwan you can go through on a scooter (motorbike), but I've never tried on a bicycle
Opening shot: Cars queuing in the bike lane.
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Need Rednecks For bicycles.. Maybe they go Woodaloo flr us too
That's certainly a unique way to block the bike lane
Just make it a right turn lane - solved!
@@RedKnight-fn6jr Something I saw fairly often in China was a bike lane marked on the sidewalk. In this case, they probably could and should, route the bikes onto something similar until it gets past the restaurant. And better still, stop approving restaurants have the kitchen in the wrong location. Those cars should be moving through that drive through lane in the opposite direction. This design generates traffic and crash risks the same way that those clover leaves do.
How is it a "restaurant" if it doesn't have indoor dinning? That's just a kithcen.
You think of McDonalds when you think of going out to a restaurant? Dates must feel so prestigious with you
The definition for restaurant specifies indoor dining? Where is this definition from?
@@LucificNight Any dictionary.
Restaurant,
noun,
"a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises."
Well, better a kitchen without a restaurant than a restaurant without a kitchen. 😄
@@zackatwood2867 well, there are areas where McDonald's is the only restaurant open 24/7.
Usually the times where I go to a fast food restaurant and find the drive-thru queued up forever, I just go inside and order carryout. It's much quicker and more fuel efficient than waiting in a car line 10 vehicles deep.
I do that, and I like that it feels like cheating.
Some restaurants prioritize drive thru orders and fulfilling them takes precedence. I tried walking in one time they fulfilled 6 drive thru orders that came after I ordered before they touched mine.
That's my default choice nowadays. I only use the drive-thru nowadays if I have literally no other option.
exactly, it baffles me that anyone prefers drivethrough when you have more than like 2 cars in front of the order section, especially these days when you can just use the app while parked and STILL have it delivered to your car, it's just a better version of drivethrough.
@@Jabid21 That may be true, but in a drive through you have to queue before you can even order. Inside the building there are electronic screens you can order on and there's always one available. So by going inside you join the food preparation queue much sooner than the person who stays in their car.
(The only fast food restaurant I frequently use doesn't seem to do this, so maybe the reality is different from how I imagine it...)
People were screaming about living in pods when talking about small apartments and they fail to see the car is the pod they’re already living in
5:02 "Seniors often hang out at fast-food restaurants"
Yes! This is very true of my McDonalds, under the Ditmars Boulevard elevated station, and the Dunkin' Donuts around the corner. Those are where they hang out for hours and hours. And it's been going on as long as I remember. Then there are the kids who come after-school and do their thing, while waiting out the 15-minute McDonald's App wait-time to get more offers and discounts again.
America needs kopitiams for their seniors
I have a couple of coffee shops I go to when I'm working, and there are some people I see there most of the times I go. Often times, these are older people, and like you say, they're there when I arrive and still there when I leave.
Fond memories of visiting Hardee's with my grandparents. They would enjoy biscuits and coffee with their buddies. I leaned how amazing the Frisco sandwich is 🤤
(UK) Old folks here hang out in garden shops. They'll have tea and cakes as well as meals. It's a lot quieter for a bit of conversation and no hurry to free up seats.
@@randeknight Yeah, no old person here would get caught dead in a fast food place. Garden centers, small sandwich/coffee shops, libraries. Definitely not fast food.
As seen from a tourist: the walkable situation would be half as bad, even good, if owners were forced to connect parking lots with some simple walking paths.
We often have some paint or sidewalks in strip mall lots, but it doesn't mean much to most people; we just want to get the shop quickly. I work in a nice strip mall with decorated walkways, but I don't usually use them unless it's the shortest path. I just take a shortcut across the fairly empty parking lot.
@@GirtonOramsaythat’s usually bc the sidewalks don’t connect anywhere in suburban areas, only existing along main roads when most people live a far walking distance from those roads in neighborhoods
I go to a place for coffee near where my sister lives. The sidewalk there dead ends into a fast food lane
Yes, why would I waste my own gas on sitting in line when I can just take advantage of the free air conditioning inside the restaurant.
because the tables are dirty, the music is bad and too loud, there's kids running around and yelling, and sometimes the frying smell gets too much. in the car i have better ac, can listen to my own music or have a good conversation with my wife. plus the drive thru is a single line which is great. multiple lines are stressful and i always end up choosing the slower one. frustrating.
@@lazyboy300 Christ, I understand why some people say America is hopeless.
@@kjh23gk I don't myself understand why you'd use a drive through. Why would you want to risk dirtying your own car and eat, when you can just park and not have to think about the potential mess (other than your clothes). Even if you're bringing it home, I'll gladly take the excuse to get out of the car for like 15 minutes. Then again, my transport of choice is public transit. And I very seldom eat fast food.
@@kjh23gk i'm not american
@@lazyboy300 have u not been inside a restaurant in a few decades?
Just one more drive through lane, bro
I see a lot of the busier drive throughs having a second lane for ordering. It does speed things up a bit, but more than that and you have logistical issues with needing a way to deliver the food to the other lane, and much of it involves things that are easy to spill like drinks. It's not like banks where they can just put the money into pneumatic tubes for delivery to the car.
Nonono we need a drive thru on top of the drive thru and another drive thru under the drive thru. Also a drive thru
@@breakingbacon658 we need a car compatible fast food mega mall that spans 10 city blocks.
I was working in Florida with a Swedish friend, and one day he decided we could try this American novelty of Drive-Thru Banking. It's still kind of neat, using pneumatic tubes to send physical cheques, but wow it was a lot easier to just park and walk up to an ATM or a desk.
I haven't seen a check for decades and I can't remember that last time I've visited the bank. I can't understand why they are still so widely used in the US.
I haven't used or even seen a cheque here in the UK for decades. And if I had to pay a cheque into my bank I would just take a photo of it on my banking app.
Paper cheque and pneumatic tube, things of the middle 20th century, so you can sit in your car with hurting knees instead of getting at least a bit of movement into your bones. That is so funny!
When I got a job in Canada in 2010 I was really surprised when I got my ‘Paycheque’ and it was an actual cheque 😂
checks are rarely used nowadays
The perfect world. Wake up in your house surrounded by a 2m fence. Go to your car with tinted windows in your garage and leave so you don't speak to your neighbours. Drive to a food place, interact with no-one. Eat the food inside your car, go home. You don't need studies to know suburbian car centric life is terrible. Get a bike, run into people on the street, have chats, organise meet ups, live like humans should.
As someone who works from home and has to deal with noisy neighbours, a 2m fence, not dealing with neighbours and not interacting with anyone when getting my food sounds awesome.
And I live in Singapore.
Don't forget "don't work 40 hours a week"
Strange to include a privacy measure in the fence and tinted windows as part of this. I wish it was legal to cover up my yard and freely use my property without neighbours snooping
It's amazing how many people have social anxiety. Vicious cycle. I've seen people move out to the suburbs, 10 years later a lot of them are literally afraid of strangers
BY THE WAY YOU FORGOT ABOUT .. Never being outside
I can attest to older generations socializing in restaurant chains. When in middle and high school, after visiting the dentist, but before I would return to school, we would stop by Burger King. I would always see a group of older ppl, not related, catching up and talking about their lives. It’s nice to see that. I just wish my town had more than just crappy chain stores for them to find a 3rd place in.
Yeah, this video reminded me how we would spend an hour or more in McDonald's after a movie or whatever when I was in middle/high school
They wouldn't go to a hipster coffee shop because they hate dishy hipsters. They go to BK because they are fine with the product.
Here in the Greater Seattle region, a lot of fast food places have adopted a new 'trick'. You order at the driver-thru, but then they wave you to the parking lot to wait for your food. Even if there's no one behind me.
the workers get penalized if cars have to wait too long in the drive-thru. When they dk that they're trying to boost their order time stats
I've personally only seen that when they're really backed up. I tend to refuse to get in a line unless it's relatively short though. Most of the time, I wind up waiting because there's a longer than normal delay.
We do this somewhat similar in North Dakota too. You place your order at the menu, drive up and pay, then drive up to the end of the drivethru into a waiting area. Its typically only two to three long/wide, though sometimes during rushes you get a number and go into the main parking area designated for drivethru purchases only, then a worker will walk your food out to you. If it isn't busy and there's no/a short line then you just wait at the window like normal.
@@user-fs9mv8px1y It's just common sense. If they're temporarily out of stock of something, get people ordering that out of line until you can catch up.
That's because they have time goals to serve customers. They "trick" the system into thinking they got the food to you faster because you are no longer waiting at the window. So while it may have taken 3-5 minutes to get your food, their system says it took 30 seconds.
The drive up only concept generally doesn't like pedestrian or bicycle traffic which is a shame. Put a few benches/tables outside with an umbrella, away from the existing drive through, and you can grab a quick bite instead of having to carry the food somewhere else.
One teeny change I made is to always use a reusable cup for my drink. So I haven't gone through a drive through in a long time (except for during covid naturally). I park and go get my stuff.
@1:03 - The fact that we now treat whole buildings like it's as disposable as a light bulb, is a trend as terrifying as more lanes are.
True.
Most buildings are disposable. Over preservation of buildings is one of the reason we have so much sprawl and car centric development. That's one of the reason housing in Toyko is so much cheaper than New York City.
On the other hand, lightbulbs are less disposable than they used to be.
My problem with drive thrus is people always overorder. If you’re stopping for a quick coffee/snack it’s perfect. If you’re going to order 6 meals, drinks, and desert - then you should probably go inside and stop inconveniencing everyone else
@@hfbdbsijenbdever hear of 10item or less checkout lines in grocery stores? Same logic applies
@@zackatwood2867if not they had that option n drive thrus. That is unreasonable.
but I'm not going to eat inside. I'm going to eat at home. If I am forced to eat inside, I'll just make food at home and they lose my purchase or I got to an actual sit down restaurant.
Used to be, people would figure out it was taking too long, and either go in, or just leave. I guess that’s why most new drive thru’s trap you). I got stuck behind two huge orders before. I drove up to the window and told the lady I didn’t want my meal now because it was cold. She started to object, but then felt the bag and realized I was correct. I also told her I would have left if I had not been trapped.
I was firm, but polite. I got a fresh meal, and it was free.
@@nunyabidness3075
You got a "fresh" and "new" fast food meal along with the 2600 calories and 56 g of fat and your 44 inch waist.
I would do the curbside pick up, but I don't want to download 30 apps just to have every fast food place, even if they do rewards and I get free food or discounts. That's my issue with the mobile ordering feature.
Usually you can just call the restaurant and they will bring the order out.
I’ve never had to download an app to get curbside pick up. I didn’t even know these restaurants had an app.
come on buddy, don't you want to give all your data to the corpos? why are you so selfish?
You can order for pick up on apps like doordash, these don't (normally) charge for pickup so it's not an extra cost, but you don't get any coupons or deals through it. The benefit is that you can get most places all in one app, even places that don't normally have an app.
As a night shift worker banning drive-thrus would be terrible. It is already hard to find places to get food in the middle of the night and of those that do probably 98% of them are drive-thru only with the dining room closed since they can get by with less staffing that way. On the other hand getting rid of in-store dining would aggravate me too since I often go on road trips and being able to sit in a place and eat with at least some people around is great for mental health.
While I agree that drivethroughs are an issue I'm going to present an alternative perspective. I have an aging friend who has serious mobility issues. If not for drive throughs he'd struggle to feed himself... Sure, he'd love to spend time in a "third space" but he just can't. He used to, but now he doesn't because he simply isn't able. I realize that most people aren't in his situation, but completely banning drive throughs screws up the lives of a certain subset of the population.
One of the fast food restaurants near me stops in-restaurant dining after 8pm, but the drive thru remains open until 11pm. So instead of walking to the restaurant, getting my meal and walking home, I was incentivized to get into my car to drive 3 blocks and spend more time idling in a line than traveling.
good business decision. keeping the dining hall open at night is dangerous for the staff and wastes resources on a few customers. The loss of the dine ins is recoup in not having dining hall staff. capitalism is beautiful
@@cmdrls212
This is only an issue when you have too much of a couple of certain demographics living in your area. At my local McDonalds, of all the times I've ever gone there its almost always just one demographic of people that causes the most trouble and are looking for a fight.
send this vid to the managers email and maybe they’ll a walk up window one day
@@Gigaamped That won't ever happen unless the laws are changed to make them not responsible if somebody walking up to the window is injured by a car.
Means its a high crime area
I currently work at a McDonald's and while ~75% of revenue comes from the drive through, it's a place for Highschoolers to meet after school. When the dining room was closed during COVID the drop in business was noticeable and painful.
Imagine having such good food that you have to reinvent ways to deal with the demand. I can't think of any other fast food place that is anywhere near as successful as CFA.
Drive thru is crazy if you think about it... Many foods can not be eaten practically while driving safely. In fact in many states you can be arrested for eating while driving. Eating in or carry out is preferred...plus you can wash your hands before eating. Another interesting trend is restaurants getting rid of dine in options...especially pizza places. This is a horrible idea though...again many foods aren't practical to eat in a car (like a pizza) and if you're on vacation or traveling, you might not have a local dwelling to use to eat the meal.
Who on Earth eats while in their car?
@@mausklick1635 Plenty of people do. Though I imagine most drive through is picked up on the way to somewhere.
Most pizzerias may be eliminating dine in options, but people aren't eating their pizzas while driving. Not normally anyway.
@@mausklick1635 i eat while biking lol (btw, i have nice bike paths, don't think i am a crazy guy who would enjoy eating while getting cars 3 centimeters on the left lol)
The drive thru is used to avoid shutting off the engine and wasting time walking in to walk back out and take it home. This allows for people that walk in to get their food faster as well as more parking space for cars and bikes.
Your post is one massive strawman fallacy.
There are many people that rely on drive thrus to be able to easily get food or beverages - it's an accessibility issue. Not only do disabled people exist, but there are other reasons why someone may not want to or be able to get out of their car to go into a restaurant and pick up their order. There are parents who have infants and young children in the car and it can be very inconvenient for one parent to spend 10 minutes just getting the kids in and out of their car seats, grabbing strollers, etc. just to grab food to bring home. If someone has an injury that limits their mobility, they may not be able to wrangle their crutches and carry a cup of hot coffee from the coffee shop to their car.
your cornell bit at the end is kinda just what i needed! just yesterday i realized that urban and regional planning is probably the place where i can do the most to help others, and bam! a great and trusted source recommends a great way to start! i’ll get looking :)
The world needs that. Thank you!
Consider a school besides Cornell. It's overpriced and recently it's become more and more apparent that the institution is motivated more by greed than by the betterment of the public.
My only problem with banning drive throughs is disability access.
Unless the restaurant is willing to bring the food out to the car which none seem to be, Im not willing to mask up, get on my braces and go in and stand around for 20 minutes waiting for taco bell or in and out that I ordered on the app with a expected pick up time of 5:30... but hasn't even been started yet when I get there.
Which happens 9 times out of ten when I order food for pick up on an ap or website. I can't tell you the number of times I have heard "Im sorry we are really busy today" only to have the person leave the counter and go start making my food while I wait.
Sounds like delivery would be a better option for you. Then you wouldn't need to mask up (?), get on your braces, get in your car, drive to the burger joint, get your food, drive back home, take off your braces.
Do you expect all businesses you frequent to come out and serve you at your car?
@@kjh23gk Or, I could go through a drive through and avoid paying an extra 15 dollars plus tip for a $10 order.
@@kjh23gk to get delivery you have to pay an extra $15 plus a tip and wait an hour to as long as two hours in some cases.
I'll just stick to drive through on my way past.
@@kjh23gkDelivery is far more expensive.
And it’s not unreasonable to expect restaurants to serve you at your car. Especially if it’s difficult for you to get out.
@@maryelizamoore7870 What a bizarrely car-brained comment. 😂
My hometown in SoCal banned drive-thrus for many years, resulting in one of the few In-N-Out locations without one.
WHICH ONE OMG YES PLEASE
Placentia?? I live close by
California. Everything is thought out, but is covered in taxes, even for breathing.
@@JustinSh. You mean The Sharing bucket.
1:53 I have been saying for YEARS that if we're serious about reducing emissions, we should ban drive-throughs except for pharmacies. Then came COVID and it no longer seemed like a good idea.
If we’re serious about banning emissions, the we should ban the sale of meat, especially beef.
But that will never happen because no one actually cares about emissions.
They just want the status that comes with saying that they care but don’t actually change their ways.
@@maryelizamoore7870beef is food. You need food. You do not need a car. Humans eat meat. If we made things more local and affordable, then the meat is put up to good use.
@@donkeykongisbetterthanmari7495 You certainly don’t need meat. Beef is especially bad. There’s no way to make meat eating sustainable. Local meat still nearly always comes from a factory.
However, driving a car can be sustainable if you use an electric car.
Going vegan is the single best thing that anyone can do to combat global warming.
@@maryelizamoore7870
This is a lie. Humans have and continued to eat meat for thousands of years, agriculture was invented during times of hunter gatherers.
@@legendarygodzilla3577 That doesn’t mean anything.
The hunter gatherers we’re not the first humans. We have 1000s of years of history before that. But even if they were, things have changed. Meat eating is cruel and destructive for the planet. And nearly all meat that we have access to comes from factories nowadays. It’s just not sustainable.
I have a disability resulting in my being Nonambulatory, my partner also being in a wheelchair means that it can be a true hassle for a single driver to get us both in and out of a vehicle, in and out of a restaurant, assuming the restaurant even has adequate accommodations at all.
My point is, that for some of us, drive-thru is the only truly viable option.
I agree with all of your points, and do think it would be "better" for most people to eliminate drive-thru dining, HOWEVER, I ask that you take a moment to consider who might be left behind.
In addition to my situation, consider that many people use the drive-thru because they have multiple children in the car and only one adult, consider a single adult with an infant also managing to get 3 or more other young children safely in and out of the dinning room on the way to soccer practice. How would that person experience the loss of the drive-thru, and how would it impact the experience of those trying to utilize the 3rd space inside as well?
I agree a solution should be found, but please do not offer a solution assuming that everyone has the same capability as you do.
Thank you for saying this. ❤
I used to live in a city where I met a friend who had only one arm mobility. We often met at a local market, where he would come on his electric weelchair. I often chat with him walking to the supermarket as he was returning home. I seldom bump into him in some café here and there in the city...
The one place I would never see that guy on his electric wheelchair is close to a car. But from morning when the nurse would sit him on his throne, he would freely go all around the city to enjoy. Because that city is walk-able, designed for people first, and even if cars and trucks can drive pretty much everywhere, you can also walk (or wheelchair ride) safely and easily.
As for the parent and child, I don't see what your point can be
@@Kollum I can only assume you have never had to manage multiple children. Children who are hungry ( or hangry) irritable, tired or excited. A drive thru feeds them all in about 15 minutes at most, going into a place is it least a half hour ordeal ( assuming the children are well behaved the entire time ) more rationally its an hour long exercise in patients. Not just for the adult but for Everyone involved.
Consider, do you want to wait in line behind a kindergarten soccer team?
It really is easier on Every one if they remain contained in whatever vehicle.
Do to them not being in my country the concept of a drive through is alien to me. Like you go and wait in a car line for hours waisting so much gas for no reason like don't yall Americans have coffee shops, restaurants and mini markets at the 1st floors of your apartment buildings
The Chic-fil-A by me was so busy they now have 3 drive through lanes. That helped but not by a lot so they built another Chic-fil-A a mile away. The drive through line isn’t half as long but now is at least on their own lot.
It just showing how lazy we are getting like Amazon habits, drive up pick up. We are just getting closer to becoming those people in wall-e movie
5:30 In Sydney, Australia, we consider Transit itself the third location. We socialize on the train.
Well: I just think cars are fundamentally evil. So anything we can do to get rid of them or deter them is great for me.
People in this country eat WAY too much fast food anyway..
At least they have the freedom to drive there and lose calories pressing their foot on a pedal!
@@GirtonOramsay yeeeaahhh
In Santa Ana/Tustin we have an intersection at 17th street and Tustin Ave that have a Chick-fil-A, an in and out, and a raising cains. These three drive through intensive restaurants are within one block of a major freeway exit. Normally in Commifornia this wouldn't be allowed. However, two are technically in Tustin and one is in Santa Ana. The traffic is horrible even though the Tustin Ave was widened with a dedicated turn lane for the drive through. 😢
That’s bogus. Many of us can’t walk well and it will be a hardship. Very ignorant to others needs .
Higher the third party traffic control if needed.
So everyone should suffer because you don’t want to think ahead and order for curbside pickup?
@@darthmaul216 thanks for taking time off from picketing wheel chair ramps and the ADA. Folks walking in don’t have to do that. Jeez.
buildings are already ada compliant its not really anyone elses problem if you cant walk
@ if you think it’s easy to walk when you need ADA then you have no empathy or sympathy.
In my old city there was a bad accident caused by a backed up chic-fil-a drivethru. The accident was so bad it shutdown the restaurant until they renovated their drivethru design. It took them half a year to complete.
I don't have a car. It was awful during COVID. If I had to eat away from home, I had to eat outside, even in the cold, even if there were no bench anywhere.
It was a paradise for motorists and a dire situation for everyone else.
I agree. My old job thrived during covid and I still had to travel and stay in hotels without access to a car. Walking to restaurants only to be turned away sure did suck.
And it's the reason why so many people continue to drive after losing their license, even though it inevitably means they end up in jail, which ruins their lives and costs money for the state.
90% of US households own a car. Motorists is just Americans.
Covid was Heaven for car owners. I miss those times 😢
I have a funny rule, if there's a city in California that I've never heard of, I just assume it's in the LA or San Diego area, this works basically every time, welcome to the list Baldwin Park, CA
Too many people are too lazy to get out of their cars and go inside, which is often faster.
However I cannot help but wonder how banning drive-thrus affects those with disabilities. Or the convenience to parents with multiple children, easier to keep all of the kids inside the car.
Well it is more dangerous for those with disability trying to cross a sea of parking and drive thru lanes. Cars are not inherently disability friendly anyway. It depends what disability you have that determines whether it is helpful or useless.
As for parents with a bunch of kids, I doubt it is an issue. The average family size in the US is nowhere near that size. It is a bit of a unicorn situation. And most likely there would be both parents if everyone is going out. Even if not, how do you have like 6 kids and all of them too young? I guess it is possible but that is pumping out lotta kids in a short time frame which makes this scenario even less likely. Considering the very measurable impacts on a daily basis, it far outweighs any concern for this very niche scenario. Even then, it isn't impossible to control 6 kids while getting food. It is just more convenient if they stayed in the car but not an impossibility. If they have two kids, they can definitely take them out of the car. Healthier that way anyways
@@neurofiedyamato8763 you are putting a lot of conditions on kids. Have you ever been around someone moving small children in and out of a car. It can easily be a 5+ minute affair each time. All it takes is one fussy kid to make the drive through more convenient. Two kids ages 0-4 years is not uncommon and adds a lot of time in getting them in and out. Disability friendly is a spectrum and depends on the disability. For many people, The act of getting in and out of the vehicle is something they want to minimize. Accommodation isn't a one size fits all.
Eat at home
The car = diability thing always confuses me. From all versions of transport cars ar the least elastic to disabilities. You can have walking canes, mobility scooters, trikes... all don't need any license and can be used easier than a car.
The question is not how can disabled people get around without a car, the question sis how can we allow disabled peopel to only have the option to get around in a car?
UberEats, DoorDash, among others, have really contributed to the problem.
Just going to say it yes! Drive thrus make getting to restaurants dangerous to get to on foot. Causes traffic jams, sound and exhaust pollution, and takes up valuable real estate in cities. And beyond all that is makes the front counter service miserable because drive thrus often get priority by company policy with workers being dinged if they take longer than a set time per car to go from order stage to them driving away. This is why I love going to big cities downtowns, where restaurant locations don’t have a drive thru and service is night and day better, extremely fast.
Yeah, I prefer to go inside to eat at places with drive throughs, but it’s very hard to get service and the order takes a long time for a “fast” food place. It’s very annoying these days…
Nope, not everyone wants to drive downtown! I’m a suburban dude and I LIKE my drive throughs!
so ban them in cities. keep them in suburbs. you can live where you want and let others live how they like.
@@cmdrls212 I’m all for that as long as the suburbs pay the full and share of infrastructure costs (roads, pipes, poles, wires, upkeep, snow clearing, etc) instead of paying lower property taxes and expecting cities and others in a region to pick up the tab. This is how cities go bankrupt. Roads and parking lots don’t pay taxes. 🤷
@@cmdrls212And the suburbs will keep the greenhouse gases and noxious fumes from cars idling all to themselves? Great!
Ill say. This wasnt a problem until Covid. Sure a few cities (mostly college towns) had drive thru problems before covid. But almost every city before hand didnt have these issues. Covid made people drive thru dependent
I like drive throughs. It was good to have during the pandemic for contactless food pickup. Banning drive throughs is government overreach and prevents people from having a more sanitary food experience, especially if another pandemic hits.
All this money spent raising the kitchen above ground when they could just GET RID OF CARS
Is it really their problem if they're popular?
I feel like that lawsuit would get thrown out, also if that Chick-fil-A in California becomes labeled as a public nuisance I'm pretty sure that Chick-fil-A can actually Sue.
If it isnt some cheap copy of a Paris cafe trope they saw in some Netflix show, then it is a "problem".
" Is it really their problem if they're popular?"
If they're dumping costs on other people via air pollution and clogging the public street, then yes, it is a problem.
@@mindstalk 99% of them aren't. Almost all of the dislike for them here are just that they hate cars.
I think the worse part of the American driving and drive through lifestyle is that even IF you want to walk inside and order and eat at the restaurant, you options are: Eat inside and look at bland fast food interiors; or eat outside at some tables that overlook a sprawling parking lot or stroad where you can mix your food with the amazing smell of exhaust. How relaxing! ☺️
I've been a few years ago in the American Sun Belt (you must know how horribly car-centric it is) and yeah I know that feeling, the amazing smell of carbon monoxide.
Why not order on the phone, park on the side of the street, and then pick it up?
Drive-thrus make sense in remote highway stops. I live 50 ft by ChickfilA in Las Vegas
When you said on the phone I truly thought you meant like call it in 😂
@@LARKXHIN hahaha
Totally agree. Idk why more people don’t do it. I hate waiting forever in drive thrus wasting gas.
@@pbcash7788 some are too lazy to get out. Hence the obesity rate
Drive-throughs make sense in the densest of towns where there is not parking spot. Everywhere else just leave your friggin' car goddamit!!
Why are Americans unable to walk 20m? Not to mention that using a drive-through is so inconvenient, sitting there in your metal box...
To answer your question, no... cities should not ban drive thru restaurants. It's baffling that the suggestion was even made. Innovation and convenience are good, actually. Going back to the 1930's is bad.
In addition to improving the drive thru they should make the dining area more appealing for families. Watch some 80s videos of mcDonalds when the dining room was packed, it was a lot of fun, it was culture, it was life! They could put in a roof-top area or something and incentivise using it. Instead of a traffic guard, hire an entertainer. Fun placemats, playground, all of that. Of course you need parking in car-centric areas.
can you have your culture and entertainers at a place designed for that instead of a private establishment that is staffed by underpaid miserable workers trying to get you in and out as fast as possible? not every place needs to become a social event. stop romanticizing the past.
I live near a suburb of dc that has both a chickfila and a mcdonalds with no drive thru. Its really nice we dont have to deal with the traffic.
My immediate thought was "No, because then you'd just get overcrowding at restaurants and no-where to park, so companies would have to make more or bigger restaurants to accommodate it. The alternative is just having people accept that they can't get the food they want right now, which isn't going to happen." but then you get the issue of "But then if the restaurants inside AND drive through are backed up, then what?" which at that point becomes "The issue is that there are too many people." which is not really a sound observation in a problem like this if you're trying to fix what is essentially an infrastructure and city planning problem.
It's worth challenging that immediate thought. Why do you think this would cause overcrowding? People take up far less space than cars. 10 cars is usually only about 12 people anyway.
6:50 When I was a full-time rideshare driver, I always felt like a genius for skipping the drive-thru lines and parking and ordering inside. I was also so much more unhealthy then, as driving long hours every day made me end up eating fast food so often. Now I bike every day and mostly dine at real local restaurants!
Funny… my municipality is currently tangled up in a lawsuit regarding Chick-fil-A (in directly)
Hilarious that the company is so successful it’s causing towns to sue them for the traffic 😂
@@narutobrokenthe town is actually getting sued by a landowner that intended to lease land to them for a new location 😂.
was it Tumors or an accident or a back up to town hall or car fumes or
@@narutobrokenthe crime of being so popular that people will go into a 40 car line to eat, (it still only takes 10 minutes)
I grew up in a drive-thru ban city. Although, I think it was less “improving traffic and dining experience” and more “fast food is ‘low class’ and doesn’t ’fit the neighboorhood’”🙄
I can't explain how frustrating it is when restaurants have only drive through and me driving a semi truck can't fit in there, not easily anyway. So I have to walk between 2 bumpers hoping I don't become a big Mac myself
Wendys kicked me off the property for that.
@@Perich29 WTH I hope you took this to corporate.
I mentioned this in somebody's comment:
When I used to be a shift manager some years ago, we would prioritize the people that would walk in as a way to reward them for coming in, as it kept more workers employed and on the shift instead of only having one person handling the drive thru window.
Also, having more people inside the restaurant created a more inviting atmosphere and also the potential for a resale or people grabbing a little something extra on the way out (and extra up for drinks, bottled water, dessert etc.)
I always enter the restaurant when getting a to-go order. #1 It reduces the chances of error or I can ask to correct it. #2 It reduces pressure on the staff since requirements from corporate for drive thru times are strict. A reward would be appreciated :)
i make a decent salary and dont know how teens are able to afford cars and eat out at chick a fil
They use mom or dad's car 😁
@@JeffreyW67also that is their main expense. Not paying for rent, utilities, or groceries.
They work at CHick fil a. Fast food these days pays $15-20/hour
I don't know about Chikfila, but McDonald's has great deals for people willing to take the time and effort to seek them out. It's a form of market segmentation. If the list price doesn't bother you, you won't download the app, collect points, or seek out coupons. Doing these things (and ignoring the high-priced promos) can consistently cut 25% - 50% off the price of a meal.
Also, they just buy less food.
I am in college and most people I meet don't know how to cook. There is a wealth of information available for free online but you have to make a dedicated effort to learn it, and a lot of cooking you have to learn by experience. It also requires kitchen space, equipment, and time. Many people just get locked into the habit of overspending on crappy food and don't escape. its hard to make a healthy choice when there's a drive-thru on every street.
I used to work at a drive through only Starbucks and there would be cars lined up outside of the property all the way down the street that would sometimes prevent me from getting to work on time. Even worse, once you were in the drive through there was no way out. You couldn’t just decide that you’ve waited too long and turn around because you were sandwiched in between a wall and the building and the only way out was to go all the way through the drive through.
Isn't the whole point of fast food to get a quick bite while going between two "third spaces" or between work and a "third space"? The most typical for me is going from work to a game (of some sort).
Great video! We're going down this route in the UK now - my city has a desolate and dying centre, while drive-thrus are popping up everywhere at an alarming rate. My local retail park has terribly bad traffic due to the recently-opened Starbucks drive-thru - it can sometimes take twenty minutes to get in or out as a result - and yet the local authorities keep giving planning permission to more and more outlets. UK viewers will be familiar with Greggs - we're even getting a drive-thru one of those in the coming months. It feels dystopian, and I can't see us reversing the trend anytime soon.
Chick Fil A is making a chicken dispensing overpass to improve traffic…wow
I wonder if adding additional drive through lanes contributes to induced demand (e.g. one more lane) where it temporarily eases traffic, but then as people see the drive through looks less busy, they then start coming there more frequently and it just ends up getting bogged down again? I'm sure there is a delta somewhere that it would plateau, but just from my own observations, the Chick-fil-a restaurants near me all have two drive through lanes, and at least one of them still causes traffic to back up onto the nearby roadway.
Chick-fil-A is just that good that everywhere it is people are packing in to get it, and there responce time is so good long lines literally doesn't matter to the consumer because long lines are shorter then shortlines at places like McDonald's
All garbage food as well. The saying always go, "If you get your food through a window, you don't want to eat it." Around here in the desert, most fast food places are on pads within shipping centers to keep the drive-through traffic off the public streets.
You are aware that in basically every restauratn the food gets to you thourgh a window? it's just that someone else carries it for you instead of making a long arm in the drive-through.
@@steemlenn8797LMAO. I don't believe he thought that far. And does a big Mac become healthier if I eat it inside after they give me the tray?
One of the reasons drive thru got popular was that it was more convenient than going inside, waiting in line to order and getting the food. But now that drive thru is often a slower way to get food, i think people will eventually use other ways like curbside ordering and pickup
@4:43 **Jet** flying overhead practically in the drive through lane while the graphic says, "Nix drive thrus, 60-70% less NOX."
I _mostly_ grew up in a smallish town that only had two official fast foods (some burger place, and a subway), but also had a "walk-thru" fast-food shack. And that shack was pretty cool, actually. Burger, Hotdog, Nachos, or Chili were the main dishes and a few flavors of shakes. You'd be walking down the sidewalk (what a crazy concept) and could just dip over to the shack, place an order, and then have a seat at one of the shaded benches. The food itself still had the problem inherent to all fast food -- there's no way it was a good idea to eat it more than maybe once a month. But there were no drive-thru issues. And if you were driving, you could just park nearby or even go to the nearby gas station or bank and then walk over for your food.
I have come to believe that cars never should have become a lynch-pin of transportation, and absolutely we shouldn't have completely changed how cities are structured just to accommodate them. Roads are a waste of space, parking lots (car parks) are a massive waste of space and drive-thru lanes and structures are the worst waste of space of them all. Get rid of those things and a city could be half or even a quarter of the size in acreage (especially if we were to also stop with the single-family-homes that no one can afford now). Far more walk-able and bike-able cities and towns. Have some trams for further corners of the city to be easily accessible by foot, and you're all set. Car accidents would go away, pollution would drop quite a lot, and people would have a lot more money they aren't spending on cars, maintenance, gas, insurance, and other fees.
Modern cars use between 0.5 - 1.5 liters per hour when stationary. Probably half to two thirds if the drivers uses their start-stop system. Don't get me wrong, it's still a waste, however, from my experience people tremendously overestimate the amount of fuel a car uses while stationary.
There's been many times where I've been to a restaurant with a drive-thru that was packed. I parked my car, went into the store and ordered my food to go, went back to my car, and see that the drive-thru has barely moved.
7:20 Crazy idea. Why not make the ground floor the parking lot (or even better put the parking lot underground) and build the “restaurant” above it? Way better land use :)
Drive-thru are the disgusting collision of obesity and car-dependency. I refuse to use them anymore.
Over here in Germany some places have drive through, but they are so seldom used, that I seriously cannot recall to have ever seen one in use. I assume that some people are using them, else they would be removed. But as only few places have them, most people are used to going inside to eat or at least to pick up their food.
"Over here in Germany some places have drive through, but they are so seldom used, "
I swear Europeans have two modes:
Acting like these places dont exist, until people have to literally show them a Google satalite image of the place
2) Admitting they do.....but then pretending like "no one I know uses a drive-thru! It's like a completely mystery!!!!!!!!"
I just looked up a random McD's in Germany:
Am Falbenholzweg 4, 91126 Schwabach, Germany
Zoomed in, and there are 4 freaking cars in the pick-up lane.
Like, just STOP already.
@@xandercruz900 I didn't say that I don't know people using them. I said that I cannot remember them being used. But I also said that they probably ate used somewhat, else they wouldn't have been built.
I live quite close to one and pass by often enough, but never see cars in the drive through but people inside the building. And I biked through Germany once with stopping at McDonalds for food or toilets or for shelter in the rain, multiple times. Drive through was always empty, tables full. Same at the place of my boyfriend. The supermarket where he mostly does groceries is beside a McDonalds that has a drive through. Never saw it used.
And why do I only write about McDonald's? Because only they and Burger King and maybe KFC have drive through to begin with over here. If at all.
But congrats. You found a place in Germany with 4 cars in a drive through. But then I doubt that anybody would make a video about the issue with drive through places that have 4 cars in the line. The video was about regular congestion because of drive throughs even with multiple lines. Which takes much more than 4 cars.
@@katzazi664 {"But congrats. You found a place in Germany with 4 cars in a drive through."
Oh will you just LET IT GO. You guys have these places, and you guys use them. Like so what?
You clearly just posted gross generalities based on that cringe need of Europeons to pretend like they are just so above our "dirty and backwards" American life. And when you get hit with reality, you just launch into a wall of cope.
Hate to break it to you, but most drive-thrus in the US arent ":backed up with 2 lanes of cars, out into the road". The only place that is like that is basically Chick-fil-A (mainly when a new location opens), which is why it was used for this video or a McDonalds that is a frequent stop for charter buses. It is in no way "regular" to see anything like you THINK occurs. Your average Wendy's, Sonic, 5 Guys, BK, LJS, and a variety of places I see many times have 1-3 people outside of the morning/lunch/even rush, and even then it isnt that much more. where you are waiting some insanely exaggerated period of time. Just to be fair, I zoomed-in to a local Chick-fil-A in my area, next to a major highway, on a stroad, and there were 2 cars waiting.
I got in an in-n-out with some friends on a Friday evening just for the fun of it. It took us 98 minutes to leave.
Yessssssss please!!!!!!
I work at a Chick Fil A, and sometimes work at the drive thru. And honestly I would love to have no drive thru. The line backs up all the way to the feeder and it's kind of annoying. I'm like, I would always park, get out of my car and order my food inside.
Now have all of those people shoved into the restaurant in a mob. None of whom want to be inside, and are just trying to get their food so they can drive home and enjoy it, or get to their workplace, but have to crowd inside the store just to order/get their food.
Still want to be that guy?
@@xandercruz900 yes.
@@xandercruz900 100%. Oh my god, you should honestly do a couple of shifts at a drive-thru at a weekend. I used to work at Starbucks and I dreaded working weekends because I know I will always come out stressed and aggravated. It's simply impossible to fulfill orders in a timely matter especially when everyone is ordering custom fraps and lattes; it's not unusual to have four drinks plus per each vehicle. At least with people mobbing inside customers can at least throw daggers at the those would order too many drinks at once
@@henrymorales9584 I need to visit Starbucks more if there's dagger throwing...
@@henrymorales9584 I worked at McDonalds in the late 90s.....during the evening rush. Occasionally did a 12 hour shift for extra money because coverage was short, and the generous free food I was given.
The real emissions problem is people showing up to schools and preschools an hour early running their car and waiting. In Houston most Chick-fil-As have three lanes and they move so quick
You just wait until In-and-Out comes to Beaverton, Oregon.
I live five minutes from one here in Las Vegas. Have not eaten there in a decade.
Ha! Isn't it planned to be near the Chick-fil-A? That one is still on hiatus. Ridgefield, WA is next. I glad i dont go near these places on a regular basis.
There's a bank on Broad Street in SLO that still has drive-up lanes. I've heard it was grandfathered in prior to the drive-thru ban. Regardless, for bettor or worse, I think SLO's lack of drive-thrus has kept a number of businesses from opening here, mostly fast-food places and Walgreens.
Who wouldnt want less fast food joints and corporate pharmacies?
Walgreens does drive-thru? I don't think I've ever seen that.
@@mindstalkEvery single Walgreens in my area has a drive through.
I'm still amazed that once the problem became evident with the major offenders (Chick-fil-a, In-n-Out, Starbucks), local governments still made little to no effort to at least force these places to build on bigger lots that could accommodate the traffic they create.
This is a bad idea for the same reason that minimum parking mandates are a bad idea.
Isn't that the "one more lane will fix it" approach? It will induce demand and you'll end up with 20-lane drive throughs.
If I see a backed up drive thru, I just find another place to get food, like the grocery store. I don't ever need a certain food item so bad that I'm in a long line at the drive thru. Now, if it's the only place open and somehow I haven't eaten in a few days, then I will get in the long line or go inside. Ban drive thrus? That's strange to suggest.
Short answer: No.
Just densify cities, and there'll be less cars going to fast food places and more bicycles.
longer answer: Yes.
@@skellurip So we should ban TVs, computers, and cellular phones to get people to walk more?
@@JohnDegurechaff or bring a smartphone on your walk
@@JohnDegurechaff urbanists want to ban solitude because you must talk to your neighbors and socialize every day like you're supposed to do. their lives need such trivialities and they cannot accept anyone who is not a yappy little social butterfly. It's crazy how they blame people for choosing to not listen to them yap about stroads lol
@@walawala-fo7ds We don't want to ban solitude.
Walkability helps us introverts just as much as it helps people in cars, on bikes, and of course those walking.
I don't eat fast food so it doesn't matter to me except the cars blocking actual road lanes is definitely a safety hazard. Shout out to the In N Out next to LAX.
I feel like this excessive over use of specifically the drive thru section of these fast food places is uniquely American. I wonder what has caused that and if some phycological triggers and health conscious triggers (food deserts obviously a secondary topic) could be at play to both reduce usage, to levels seen elsewhere in the world.
It’s simple: you make it ridiculously simple and easy to buy and eat this garbage food and you sell more.
@@enchantedbananas that isn't really true. We used to have a mc donalds here with a drive trough. Then they opened a burger king with a drive trough maybe 500 meters away.
1.5 years later both went out of business because now they where sharing the customer base. And that is in a city of 250 thousand residents.
The only mc donalds left is maybe 10km away. And there is a kfc i think. Those are the only fast food joints we have around here.
simple American suburbs are designed around driving car car everywhere and the drive through is on your route already AND you ARE driving
add in the amount of time Americans spend at work / commuting to and from work leaving little time at home
I think switching from drive-thru window service to walk-up window service would help alleviate the problem. People can still get their orders "to go" this way.
McDonald's used to do walk-up service in the 1950s and 1960s, and I would love to see walk-up service return to most restaurants outside of their historic Downey, California location...
Drive through lanes are redundant now that we have apps and the restaurants already have parking lots. The only difference is the employees have to bring the orders out. Seems better than waiting in an endless queue. Curbside pickup is smarter. Also, no waiting behind that one person who takes 10 minutes to figure out they want to order a small Coke.
Don't ban them, but bill them for every meter of public space blocked, with an exponential rate
i think we should make life as inconvenient as possible for cars - people use drive-thrus because they're easy. Restaurants like them because it increases customer churn and profit. It has to be said that drivethrus were a boon during the pandemic and a lot of fastfood chains have maintained their pandemic era dependence on drivethrus.
war on cars loses elections in places with cars. are you sure you want to go there?
@@walawala-fo7ds agree the goal should NEVER to be making LIFE WORSE but making "other" options BETTER and the "WAR ON CARS" is MAKING IT WORSE for almost everyone as the current setup REQUIRES a car to be driven
@elemenopi55 no cause you can make things convenient without making it inconvenient for other people. The main comment here just hates people who like cars which is why I like cars even more.Cause I like hating people like him. Public transit is great though
When 90% of American households own a car it's going to be very hard to win any important election on making life more difficult for most people.
Before the mobile order i'd get annoyed if someone ordered more than like $30 ahead of me because it felt like an unspoken rule that if you had a big order you go inside. Nowadays the drive thru is just how everyone goes through because they haven't discouraged the practice. I think a good stepping stone would be for restaurants to put a cap on what goes through the Drive Thru, but considering average riders per car doesn't seem to be improving IDK how it will go.
We should ban drive thrus for health reasons, not traffic reasons
I think that’s an “also” not an “instead of”
Why not both? 😆
Fast food is not as unhealthy as people say. Not walking is. Banning drive threes will improve health outcomes because reduced car usage not the food itself.
@@raaaaaaaaaam496they’ll pick up more food since they have to walk 😅
@@raaaaaaaaaam496 absolutely 💯% dead wrong 💀⚰️. Good diet is far more important than exercise if you had to pick just one. In fact, intensive exercise on a bad diet can lead to a very early death because your heart is working overtime with all the congestion in the veins and arteries. This happens far too often to gym enthusiasts well under 40. Fast food is like slow poison and no amount (or type) of exercise can possibly compensate.
I've heard multiple health experts weigh up diet vs exercise at around 85/15 meaning diet is at 85 and exercise at 15. Experts may vary with their exact numbers but the consensus is that diet trumps exercise.
1:00 That happened in my town and they had to open a second chick fil a down the street because of the demand. We now have two chick fil a's in our small town both within 1 mile from each other and they are busy from open to close 6 days a week.
If every person who eats at Chick-fil-A had to Park and walk inside the restaurant, order, sit down and eat, and then leave, the traffic jam would be a lot longer than it is the drive-thru. Just because a restaurant is successful, doesn't mean cities should think about banning parts of them.
No city in their right mind would be so dumb to do anything of the sort, and PO more voters than the handful of anti-car loons that have a stick up their chutes that people have the nerve to not go into the holy lobby of a restaurant like they deem the only proper way to get food.
I don't even go to fast food anymore. About 20 years ago I used to try going in, to skip the drivethru line, but they just completely ignore you.
I don't get why people order at drive throughs. Take away food is messy and usually people like to keep their cars clean, because it isn't very easy to clean it up. So why do you want to eat in your car again? Don't you want to go inside and eat on a table like a civilized person? Maybe some day McD will also put a plate under my fries and hamburger, like a real restaurant.
A couple years ago in my town, an old dine-in only starbucks was closed and a new building with a drive thru was built right next door. On opening day, the drive thru queue completely overflowed and started impeding the main road, and it continually snarls traffic today. Really makes you wonder how all these people managed to get their coffee before! It’s unfortunate that corporations will build drive thrus because it makes them more profit at the expense of the air quality, pedestrian safety, and traffic operations of the community
You touched on the issue of unintended consequences but didn't quantify the impacts (mentioning that people were willing to drive 20 minutes away from SLO to get to the nearest In n Out.) If city A has a drive through ban, city B may see that as an opportunity to host a drive through. Net emissions could therefore increase, if people now drive farther from city A to city B to get their fast food fix.
One thing not mentioned is that drive-throughs have a lot of cars idling their engines for several minutes which is wasteful and polluting. Of course this is eliminated in hybrid and electric cars.
You mentioned the real answer but didnt stress it: curbside pickup
With smartphones they can just do that instead. Drive thru is a convenience that will bring extra business if offered. For that reason, it will always thrive in the USA. Just need to improve it
That's dumb. It's basically the same as a drive through, and it requires me to have apps for every single store, which is also dumb
@@cablefeed3738 drive thru’s take like 10 minutes minimum. Pick up is 5 minutes MAX. Big deal for a lot of people.
@@cablefeed3738 Most restaurants that offer curbside pickup don't make you use an app. Most just ask you to call so they know you are there. But if you wanted to go in and get your food, you still could. The order is just sitting on the counter or at the bar like it always is.