Drive-thru Bans

There’s a movement going through through city councils to ban the construction of new drive-thrus for the sake of the CO2 emissions.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

First of all there’s the problem of delineating the difference between constructive uses of fuel, and those that are wasteful. Those who wait in line for their fast food consider it an acceptable loss; as do those who regularly drive to the convenience store, instead of buying all their supplies at the grocery mart, and those who drive across town to go to a particular club on Friday night, instead of the local pub.

But let’s ignore that for now.

As things stand, you’re likely to find a drive-thru lineup during the peak periods of the day (typically morning and lunch, and sometimes at the end of the work day). Outside of those periods you’ll generally save time by going through the drive-thru, and arguably fuel as well.

By banning the construction of new facilities, the growth of population is going to increase the duration of these peak periods. Many people will refuse to wait, of course, but they’re already doing that and there’s still a lineup. Some people are willing to wait at 08:00; and there’s no reason that should change for 10:30, 15:30, and 19:00.

So: if these resolutions are passed, then the long-term result will be an increase in CO2 emissions.

To effectively combat CO2, I can think of two things that might actually be effective. Either they could raise the tax on fuel, thus raising the opportunity cost for drive-thrus, driving across the city, and warming the car up on a cold morning-

Or they could promote the construction of slanted drive-thru lanes that would allow the users to turn their vehicles off, put them in neutral, and coast their way up to the window as traffic allows.

But somehow I don’t think they’d like that suggestion.