Minneapolis Bans Drive-Thru Windows

Drive-thrus have made it easier for us to get our fast food on the go. It's just a simple three-step process and you don't have to get out of your car to do it. However, things are looking bleak for drive-thrus in the city of Minneapolis as it has recently banned the building of drive-thru windows as an initiative to reduce emissions, noise, and pedestrian accidents.

They specifically state vehicle emissions will be reduced, but no doubt human flatulence inside cars will also fall given this new ruling. Either way, this could be the first roll of the snowball that could see drive-thrus being a thing of the past.
Following a city council vote, members have voted to update zoning laws that will ban the construction of any new drive-thru windows in America’s 46th largest city. The Minneapolis City Council declared the zoning change will help achieve the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent come 2050.

-via BBC

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)


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Thank you for the explanation! I suppose it makes sense: lack of foot traffic and difficult parking would discourage people from going into those fast food restaurants. Plus, with indie pubs and restaurants serving better food, why eat fast food in the first place?
I noticed that ever since my family and I moved to Portland, Oregon, we've eaten much fewer fast food meals. A lot of this is because there's actually a large number of small, indie restaurants that serve great food (and the ability to find 'em through review sites like Eater and apps like Yelp).
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One part is the core downtown area of Minneapolis is tiny compared to the rest of the city, or even the whole metro area. I'm not saying no fastfood, just no McDonalds, BurgerKing, Wendys. etc. There are tons of Subways of course. The core downtown area is only 2.5 to 3 square miles or so. (Compared to the whole metro area stretching out 40+ miles all ways out to the edges around the two downtowns). Just surrounded by many rings of suburbs out to the exburbs.
We've had a McDonalds in the past, and a BurgerKing (neither drive-throughs, no room for that), but they all left because the foot traffic wasn't that good. (hard to park in downtown).
Plus, there are a ton of pretty decent stand alone restaurants. I can go have a burger in a number of decent pubs or restaurants. I would pass a dozen good places walking 6-7 blocks, such as Red Cow or Hell's Kitchen.
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As a parent with children, I absolutely love drive-thru windows. They're super convenient, and I wouldn't have to park, then haul the kids out of the car to get food, and then haul them back to the car.
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And then they will ban NASCAR, Thanksgiving travel, vacations, pets, sporting events, moving companies, and my mother in law barging into my house. All the fun of life will be gone :(
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