Meet me at the counter

A few weeks ago, RevMod Don posted his reaction to a study comparing the number of fast food restaurants in a city and the city's corresponding obesity rate. What's not apparent from the University of Alberta study is how many of those restaurants in the study have a drive-thru. Drive-thru customers not only face the possibility of obesity, they also suffer from acute stupidity and a complete disregard for their environment. At one time, Don and I both lived in Calgary, where we both were witness to carloads of cretins who would order food from a drive-thru, then eat it in the nearby parking lot.

I doubt if many of these people (and their fast food multinational enablers) realize the volume of greenhouse gasses their idling vehicles are spewing into the atmosphere, nor the amount of trash that's left behind in the neighbourhoods where fast food restaurants are located. This page lives near a section of Main Street in Vancouver which has a Burger King, a McDonalds, and a car dealership between the two of them - it's kind of the 'f**k you block' heading south just before the vegetarian restaurants and bus stops of the Broadway Corridor. For all the people who are scared to visit East Vancouver for fear of stepping on a used needle, trust me, if you come down Main you can easily insulate yourself in burger wrappers, french fry boxes, and not-so collectible cups.

That being said, I'm heartened to see that North Vancouver's City Council is thinking about banning drive-thrus. Land is expensive and scare in the Lower Mainland, and it can certainly be better used for something other than cheap dining options built to a vehicular scale. It's a step in the right direction, and hopefully along the way Metro Vancouver's local Councils consider giving the boot to other purveyors of crap and free parking: I'm looking at you, Wal-Mart .