Drive-thru home windows have made an enormous comeback, and—very like Zoom, distant work, and grocery supply companies—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 shopper conduct, so naturally, the federal government has stepped in to do what it does finest: regulate, limit, and ban.
Final yr, The New York Occasions reported on the post-pandemic sturdiness of drive-thrus, noting that their visitors elevated by 30 % from 2019 to 2022, exhibiting that Individuals most popular staying of their automobiles even after the general public well being emergency started to wane. It is unremarkable that drive-thrus accounted for 70 % 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 College of Administration used cellphone knowledge to trace the common time spent at McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Starbucks—which make up roughly 10 % 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 course. 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 comparable to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Annapolis, Maryland, have lately jumped on the bandwagon with proposed bans.
Whereas prior makes an attempt to curb fast-food tradition centered on preventing weight problems, as we speak’s rationale is completely different: visitors congestion and efforts to advertise walkability. Planners bemoan the visitors snarls attributable to lengthy traces 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 different types of mobility like biking, strolling, and public transit.
For contemporary city planners, walkability is the purpose. “The extra drive-thrus you construct, the extra car-centric you change into—versus one thing that has extra mobility choices,” mentioned Keba Samuel, chair of the Charlotte Planning Fee in North Carolina. “It does not make sense to have this multi-billion funding in mild rail and nonetheless encourage an auto-centric setting. It is contradictory.”
In different phrases, mild 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 prospects 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 research discovered that quick service eating places with drive-thru home windows noticed a modest 4 % decline in gross sales from 2019 to 2022. In the meantime, these with out drive-thrus skilled a devastating 50 % drop. That’s comparable to 25 % of Starbucks prospects—and 50 % of the chain’s complete income—transitioning to drive-thru-only shops.
Drive-thru bans additionally overlook the market responses already addressing visitors congestion points. Taco Bell opened its first “Defy” outlet in 2022, which encompasses a two-story format with 4 drive-thru lanes and meals delivered through 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 conventional drive-thru, and using conveyor belts that may ship meals orders as quick as each six seconds.
If coverage makers actually had been involved about 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 searching for to open within the space.
A last consideration misplaced within the drive-thru debate is the important position many fast-food shops play of their communities. In some lower- and middle-class areas, eating places like McDonald’s have change into a vital “third place“—venues the place locals collect for all the pieces from Bible research to bingo.
Drive-thrus may not match the imaginative and prescient of many city planners, however the actuality is they’re changing into extra necessary, not much less.
