Minneapolis Attempts To Curb Pollution, Traffic, Distracted Driving And Obesity By Banning Drive-Thrus – Sacrifices Those With Disabilities

One of the hottest trends in the restaurant world right now is delivery — and Minneapolis just gave people one more reason to stay home and place their food orders online: The city has placed a ban on the construction of new drive-thru windows.

Be it restaurant or coffee shop, pharmacy or bank, the Minneapolis City Council approved the new rule this past Thursday, leaving current drive-thrus untouched (as well as businesses that are currently waiting for approval), but preventing the construction of any new ones within the city. "We're not closing any of the current drive-thrus," Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins said at the approval meeting, addressing concerns that the new policy might discriminate against those with disabilities, according to KSTP News.
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Moo1 - 8/14/2019 12:49:40 PM

+4 Boost

Yeah, will not have the desired outcome.

skytop - 8/14/2019 1:15:50 PM

+8 Boost

The U.S. has reduced its emissions dramatically. The major polluters are China, Russia and India.
Minneapolis obviously has lame brain liberals who rather kill off business and hurt the public in exchange for the "feel good" philosophy at all costs.
Liberals are PATHETIC.

Agent009 - 8/14/2019 1:17:13 PM

+6 Boost

Kinda shocked they beat California to the punch on this

sethm - 8/14/2019 2:41:15 PM

+5 Boost

I am sure Gov Grewsom is thinking about it. Gee, thanks Minneapolis...

Agent009 - 8/14/2019 3:35:38 PM

+2 Boost

While the city believes ADA requirement is still served with existing drive-thrus, they miss the point that ANY future businesses can not serve the disabled from the vehicle. New businesses such as banking and pharmacies will no longer be able to serve some of these individuals in the same manner.

Get ready for the lawsuits

cidflekken - 8/14/2019 5:38:50 PM

+2 Boost

But that doesn't make sense.
First, not every bank or retailer has drive-thrus.
Second, not every bank or retailer that uses drive thrus has a drive thru in every branch or store.

I'm just not sure any lawsuit would win here, otherwise, every establishment that serves the public would be required to have drive-thrus to accommodate those with specific disabilities preventing them from getting out of their cars. Yet, also, somehow they got out of their house and into their car.

BTW, I'm not saying this law is right or wrong. I'm just commenting on the part about accommodating our disabled citizens.

PUGPROUD - 8/14/2019 5:09:13 PM

+4 Boost

With stop go function on engines this is becoming a none issue.

cidflekken - 8/14/2019 6:41:01 PM

+1 Boost

So how does stop go prevent obesity and distracted driving? And most car's stop go can be disabled

GeorgeD - 8/14/2019 8:28:33 PM

+1 Boost

Interesting. Business's with small parking lots had a way to accommodate more customers with a drive-thru. Now, a new business needs to purchase/lease a bigger spot.

Why not close all drive thru's to make it a fair playing field.

thstone - 8/14/2019 11:51:03 PM

+3 Boost

I live in California. How the hell did Minnesota beat us to something this idiotic?

Don't worry, California will work overtime to regain our lead in idiocy.

jcarys - 8/15/2019 12:08:13 PM

+1 Boost

And I live in Minneapolis. I'm not sure I care one way or the other, it's pretty low on my list of issues. However, I will tell you there are very few drive thrus here, particularly for fast food. I can think of 3! I know of one pharmacy. This is a fairly dense city, and it just wasn't a major part of developments here.

The city of Minneapolis is also pretty small geographically, surrounded by suburbs that will be happy to let you drive thru if you prefer.