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“Drive-thrus,” as lazy folk prefer to call drive-throughs (maybe it was too easily confused with “trough”?), are a blight on efforts to make this a walk-friendly city. Here are a few core offenders, and we’re not even talking about the food.
Did Burger King jam this pickup window behind a strip at King and Dufferin so passersby wouldn’t have to look at the bleak brick walls? Spare us, please. This whopper of a planning disaster is screaming for a little green and some connection to the street.
This ugly box of a CIBC at St. Clair and Keele was snuck in just before City Hall issued its new guidelines for drive-throughs in 2005, which calls for amenities like benches. Wouldn’t be the answer here, but it would at least be a start. Looks like they gave a toddler some Lego and said, “Make Daddy a bank.”
A throwback to bad 70s planning, this Parkers at Bayview and Eg isn’t really a drive-through, since you can’t actually drive through it – only park and pick up. Dangerous, too, for those making their way to the bus stop a few metres away.
We’ll find out if city rules have any force at new downtown developments when this defunct Harvey’s at St. Clair and Vaughan becomes a Tim Hortons. An adjacent lane may prove too much for city planners to resist.
The concept of walk-throughs isn’t completely lost on the higher-ups at McD’s. This seemingly ideal spot at Queen and Spadina, however, was eliminated, leaving a void in a section of Queen that could use a little loitering.
City planners were so willing to sacrifice this corner of Leslie and Lakeshore to big-box and drive-through hell that they turned a section of sidewalk into an entranceway. Note the traffic lights.
