This Portland Burgerville now allows
bicyclists in the drive-thru. Photo: Elly Blue, Flickr
Most fast-food eateries, large and small, will only serve customers driving a car or motorcycle. They argue it's nothing personal, but allowing cars to co-mingle with pedestrians, motorized wheel chairs and bicycles, is dangerous for everyone.
Bicyclists say they're getting a raw deal. They insist that they have as much right to be served on two wheels as their counterparts do on four. More bikers and less idling cars would also have an environmental benefit, they say.
"It makes no sense," says Wiley Norvell, the communications director for Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based bicycle, pedestrian and mass transit advocacy group. "If it's not dangerous in a bike lane with cars going 35 miles an hour, how can it be dangerous in a parking lot with people traveling less than 10 miles an hour? There are fewer safety issues than on an average street."
The new face of this nascent bike movement is Sarah Gilbert, a bicyclist from Portland, Ore. In August, a tweet from Gilbert helped push the northwestern chain Burgerville to change its no bike policy. Gilbert complained on Twitter and blogged about being refused service at a Burgerville in Portland, a city that many riders view as the nation's bike-riding mecca.
The next day, Burgerville issued an apology to Gilbert and promised new bike friendly rules that began in September. Gilbert writes that her beef was more about bikers rights than fast food.
"We've been handling bikes in the drive-thrus on an ad hoc basis," Jack Graves, Burgerville's chief cultural officer, says. "Ms Gilbert's experience helped accelerate our decision to develop a formal bike-friendly program."
Graves says the company has put up signage at all of its 39 locations in Oregon and Washington to alert bike riders that they can order food at any of its drive-thrus. About a dozen bike customers a day ride through at the Portland franchise where Gilbert was denied service. At other restaurants, traffic is more infrequent, maybe one bike-riding customer every other day.
So far, Burgervilles decision to allow bikes isn't catching on with other fast-food companies.
"The safety and well being of our customers is a top priority," McDonald's spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling says in a statement to Slashfood. "In the best interest of our customers safety we only allow motor vehicles in the drive-thru that are authorized to drive on streets and highways."
Transportation Alternatives thinks that policy should be changed.
"We're not all health nuts," Norvell says. "Everyone wants a Big Mac now and again."
Would you bike through the drive-thru? Let us know in the comments below.
12-04-2009 @4:32PM Shannon said... I'm not clear why bikers can't just walk into the restaurant to get their food. It's not like they're going to be eating it on their bikes, are they?
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12-04-2009 @5:15PM LinC said... I'm with the bikers! I have gone through the outside bank teller lines on my bicycle without a problem (especially since they are open later than the teller windows inside the bank). I get a few odd looks.
I wonder if it's because the sensor that tells the restaurant staff that somebody's in the drive-thru doesn't go off for a bike.
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12-05-2009 @3:36AM Cary said... I live in Reno and in most places the drive through is open later than the restaurant. If somebody is to lazy to cook for themselves at midnight, drive through's don't accommodate bikes. I don't do this but I've seen people that try. Also, bicycles have every right that cars do except the ability to ride on certain freeways.
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12-05-2009 @12:18PM Paul said... Shannon said...
I'm not clear why bikers can't just walk into the restaurant to get their food. It's not like they're going to be eating it on their bikes, are they?
Well...
Why can't the people in cars just walk into the restaurant to get their food? That argument works both ways. Before you say "they are going to eat in their car" you should know that eating while driving in many jurisdictions can earn you a citation for "driving while distracted" same as talking on a cell phone, texting, or applying makeup.
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12-05-2009 @3:53PM jj said... Shanon,
Sometimes you've got a sleeping kid in the bike trailer, or you don't have a lock with you to lock up the bike so you can go in. Those are two reasons I can think of off the top of my head.
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12-05-2009 @5:52PM jen said... Except that I haven't seen many fast-food restaurants with places to lock up your bike, so you risk getting it stolen while you're inside...
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12-06-2009 @1:19PM CJ said... I think it's more of issue of safety. I used to work at a fast food place as a teenager and management was worried about pedestrians or bikers getting hit by a car coming through the drive thru. Many times, the drive thru lane is curved so when you place your order at the speaker you have to go around to get to the window and a driver might be distracted and not notice a pedestrian or bike at the window because it's much smaller than a car.
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12-07-2009 @1:21AM Noah Vale said... Good on burgerville. Especially since I live in pdx and have had this issue come up before at a burger king by my old apt. One shouldnt have to own a car to be able to get a cheeseburger or tacos at 2:30 am.
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12-07-2009 @3:50AM charles said... Bikes if operated in car lanes should be required to carry liablity insurance. How would an owner of a bike pay for damages if he or she riding a bike accidently runs a red light at a major intersection traveling 30 mph and hits an elderly person in a crosswalk and breaks the persons leg?
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12-07-2009 @8:51AM LinC said... That is lame. Bikes almost never run red lights because of the danger of being hit by cars. And bike are slow enough that you have time to notice things like pedestrians. I've never seen a cyclist talking on a cell phone while biking. What does liability insurance have to do with the topic of bikes in drive-thru lanes?
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12-07-2009 @11:14AM D said... Linc C:
Maybe it's just because of where I live, but recently I saw one little kid riding his bike, with another one riding on his handle bars... they were both on cell phones.
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12-07-2009 @3:24PM Mandy said... Bikers are often on cell phones around here, too.
I always thought this was a safety issue as well. When I was in banking, I was told that our insurance company wouldn't allow bikers or pedestrians in the drive up because cars not expecting to find them there could easily hit them.
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12-07-2009 @5:23PM B said... Where I live, many fast-food restaurants close their doors around 10 or 11 p.m. but the drive-thru remains open for a few more hours.
I always cheer when a company allows common sense to trump a rule or policy that was set in place years ago. In this case, and especially given the popularity of biking in PDX, the policy needed to evolve. Yeah, Burgerville! I grew up in Oregon and miss you. :)
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12-10-2009 @3:54PM dks64 said... I 100% agree with CJ, it's a safety issue, not a discrimination issue. I worked fast food for YEARS, I've seen many accidents in our lanes, I couldn't imagine how bad they would have been if the person getting rear ended was someone on a bike with a kid on the back.
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12-13-2009 @10:38PM Kimberly said... You clearly don't live in the Bay Area. I see bicyclists running red lights *every* day on my way to work. They never want to wait and figure if they don't see anyone coming, they can just go.
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