Drive-thru home windows have made a large comeback, and—very like Zoom, distant work, and grocery supply providers—they present no indicators of retreating in reputation within the post-pandemic world. The transfer towards drive-thrus has confirmed to be a sustained shift in client conduct, so naturally, the federal government has stepped in to do what it does finest: regulate, limit, and ban.
Final 12 months, The New York Occasions reported on the post-pandemic sturdiness of drive-thrus, noting that their site visitors elevated by 30 p.c from 2019 to 2022, exhibiting that People most well-liked staying of their automobiles even after the general public well being emergency started to wane. It is unremarkable that drive-thrus accounted for 70 p.c of fast-service restaurant gross sales throughout the time of social distancing guidelines, however even with the general public well being emergency within the rearview mirror, two-thirds of fast-food transactions nonetheless occur within the drive-thru lane.
Researchers at Northwestern’s Kellogg Faculty of Administration used cellphone knowledge to trace the common time spent at McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Starbucks—which make up roughly 10 p.c of all fast-food shops within the U.S—and have confirmed that brief drive-thru visits elevated throughout COVID and stayed up; longer sit-down visits to the identical eating places went down and stayed down.
But even whereas Gen Zers are frequenting drive-thrus and filming their visits for a TikTok development, metropolis governments are veering onerous within the different path. Almost each month, information comes of one other metropolis shifting to ban new drive-thrus. Minneapolis kicked off the development in 2019 by banning new drive-thru home windows citywide. In 2023, Atlanta adopted swimsuit with its personal ban on new drive-thrus inside a half-mile of the Beltline. Cities similar to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Annapolis, Maryland, have not too long ago jumped on the bandwagon with proposed bans.
Whereas prior makes an attempt to curb fast-food tradition centered on preventing weight problems, in the present day’s rationale is totally different: site visitors congestion and efforts to advertise walkability. Planners bemoan the site visitors snarls attributable to lengthy strains of automobiles ready for his or her Starbucks or Chick-fil-A repair and argue that the automobile-centric design of drive-thrus undermines efforts to advertise various types of mobility like biking, strolling, and public transit.
For contemporary city planners, walkability is the objective. “The extra drive-thrus you construct, the extra car-centric you turn out to be—versus one thing that has extra mobility choices,” mentioned Keba Samuel, chair of the Charlotte Planning Fee in North Carolina. “It would not make sense to have this multi-billion funding in gentle rail and nonetheless encourage an auto-centric atmosphere. It is contradictory.”
In different phrases, gentle rail is in, drive-thrus are out. However the actuality is extra advanced. Whereas critics might argue that drive-thrus cater to grasping company pursuits, in reality they’re what clients are demanding. For a lot of eating places, the drive-thru mannequin is the one factor that has saved them alive each throughout and after the pandemic.
The Kellogg examine discovered that quick service eating places with drive-thru home windows noticed a modest 4 p.c decline in gross sales from 2019 to 2022. In the meantime, these with out drive-thrus skilled a devastating 50 p.c drop. That’s comparable to 25 p.c of Starbucks clients—and 50 p.c of the chain’s complete income—transitioning to drive-thru-only shops.
Drive-thru bans additionally overlook the market responses already addressing site visitors congestion points. Taco Bell opened its first “Defy” outlet in 2022, which includes a two-story format with 4 drive-thru lanes and meals delivered by way of tubes. (As The Verge described it: “Assume a drive-thru financial institution however you get a Chalupa and Baja Blast as an alternative of money.”) Chick-fil-A is rolling out its personal elevated drive-thru, designed to deal with double or triple the amount of a standard drive-thru, and using conveyor belts that may ship meals orders as quick as each six seconds.
If coverage makers actually have been involved about site visitors, they’d be embracing these high-efficiency designs. As an alternative of a drive-thru ban, native governments might institute two-story zoning allowances by proper for any drive-thru companies in search of to open within the space.
A last consideration misplaced within the drive-thru debate is the very important position many fast-food shops play of their communities. In some lower- and middle-class areas, eating places like McDonald’s have turn out to be a vital “third place“—venues the place locals collect for all the things from Bible research to bingo.
Drive-thrus won’t match the imaginative and prescient of many city planners, however the actuality is they’re changing into extra vital, not much less.
