Yeah, well, it seems it closed because there wasn’t a drive-thru. Now there will be one and I’m sure it will be filled with cars soon. They are even tearing apart the property to do it. You’ll be able to spy on the people across the street in the Taco Bell and McDonald’s drive-thru from your Starbucks spot.
More drive-thus tainting the Valley air? That’s fine. Best to forget the Sierras are there. Out of sight out of mind. Now I don’t feel as guilty about not going up there as much as I should.
Fuck you, clean air! And while we’re at it: Fuck you, Sierras! I can kinda see an outline of the mountains, so I’m sure it’s cool. Can’t be that bad. Drive-thru it is! Dude I am not getting out of this vehicle right now, the new Green Day just came on New Rock!
Honestly, I will walk into a place more than use the drive-thru. I tell myself that it’s because I’m saving the air, but really it’s when the drive-thru is too busy. Plus, sometimes I don’t like the person working the drive-thru looking into my truck and seeing what a mess it is.
Not using the drive-thru and having the discipline to walk inside is kinda like when you’re thinking you should go on a diet but eat all you want anyway. Tomorrow I’ll stop going through the drive-thru, today I feast on convenience.
But wait a damn idling second here. How bad is it really for the air when we use the drive-thru as compared to parking and walking inside? Well, the best thing I could find was a study they did up in Canada at a Tim Hortons (a sorta Canadian version of Dunkin Donuts/Starbucks). This blew my mind:
“The study concluded that a Tim Hortons restaurant with no drive-thru actually produces higher emissions per vehicle than one with a drive-thru, because of emissions from starting up vehicles, traveling to and from parking spaces, and congestion that occurs in the parking lot.”
WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Mind. Blow. I couldn’t find a local study on this so we’ll have to accept a Canadian one. Crazy.
Really, it points out that we should be walking or biking to our Taco Bells and Dutch Bros. But eh.
So if you must MUST drive your truck with sexy rims to Robertito’s at 2 in the morning, don’t feel as bad about idling in line. Just feel bad about that California burrito and two adobada tacos you’re about to put down.
Fresno, and Cali in general is a car mentality state. But more so Fresno is car friendly and bike unfriendly. Shoot and forget about walking in this town…its a crap shoot every time. The weather is only great in my opinion 4 months out of the yr and the rest of the yr its not too delightful to be out walking the streets. Plus Fresno being the fast food trila city gives the food corp a idea of how fresno is…lazy, fast food, car dependent people. So yes there are a lot of drive thrus here in town. I think Fresnans aren’t thinking about air quality and seeing the mountains, they’re thinking “gosh I cant wait to get this burrito and go home”. In major cities land space is at a premium so drive thrus are vectors for gridlock so a lot of high density cities don’t have drive throughs. Or huge stores with huge parking lots. This forces people to either walk to the store or take pub trans and just expend more effort to do daily activities which promotes good health. Unlike Fresno. Of course this is just my opinion.
My favorite game is, as I walk in, to pick a car in the drive thru and see who gets their order first. Most places prioritize drive thru but I seem to be equal or better most drive thru order times. and I shrug in their direction for winning a competition they had no idea they were part of.
If i have to choose how im gonna ruin my air, I’d rather have the sweet sweet smells of dog house than Idling lightbared trucks any day! Down with drive thru’s. get out cha car and walk some.
“But wait a damn idling second here.”
You are the best. Brilliant.