BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

generally restaurants don't let pedestrians or bikes go through the drive through. i imagine it's a liability thing, and not some anti-bike conspiracy.

Actually, it's simpler than that. A bike doesn't have enough metal to activate the ordering microphone, and there's no button to push. The "handicapped" exception doesn't kick in since they're expected to be in a car.

If you just ride through, the person at the window isn't able to deal with it: on the system, the next order up is for the car behind you. (This is what happened to me.)

This is at a McDonalds. I suspect other places work the same. (Fun fact: did you know that the order taking at McD's is done remotely? Your order interaction is handled by part-timers who work from home.)

generally restaurants don't let pedestrians or bikes go through the drive through. i imagine it's a liability thing, and not some anti-bike conspiracy.

It was McDonalds near Performance and they said it was for safety reasons. They did say not just bikes but all pedestrian traffic.

I "bike through" the Conflict Kitchen takeout window and the First Commonwealth bank in Bloomfield (real teller and/or ATM). I bike through the taco stand in front of Reyna Foods if I go when there aren't throngs of people on the sidewalks.

I *wish* Pizza Sola, Klavons & a decent coffee place had bike-through (by which I mean you can order and eat/drink without having to lock up. I don't mind dismounting).

Also, the Dairy Queen (in Verona?) that was part of Tag-O-Rama a while back has a takeout window that seemed bike-friendly (depending on if there's a crowd).

I'm torn between wanting to raise hell and not giving a shit, since I don't go to fast food joints anyway. Banks, I usually just tie up out front, or bring it right inside.

It did seem that they really had safety concerns and not ant-bike

I tricked the south side bk once and got served, I almost had the cops called at me at wendys once.

But seriously, when is this really a problem? Just walk inside. The wendys incident was after 2 am and the dining room was closed.

Given how people do not pay attention when in a drive through I do not wish to be near a car. People just don't pay attention. They fiddle with their phones, keep nudging up, etc.

The Walgreens pharmacy drive-thru at Eastside has served me without question.

I think if more places were acquainted with the characteristics of lycra after an August century, they might be more likely to allow bike-drive-thru. PLEASE drive thru.

Quiet Storm totally needs a coffee bike-thru.

I got escorted away from mellon bank once

for biking through the drive through. This was

12 years ago. I closed my account.

Fidelity bank in shadyside (by the cricket)

has a bike through lane! They have sharrows

and everything. I have an account there now.

Escorted away?

^ a drive through with sharrows = AWSOME!

The Wendys in l'ville threw a fit when trying it. If there were more late night food options, it would be less of a problem. (LOVE that los cabos is open late on the weekend!)

I don't really get the liability thing, other than that it emphasizes the lack of enforcement in law. If a bike is considered a motor vehicle on the road, why not in a drive through?

I can understand practically how that is not the case, but to say it is a safety concern seems like the biggest admission of guilt in this case…

My credit union is in a plaza on 22, I come in the back way but I park it right in front of the ATM that nobody uses when the bank is open. I can see it from the bank, people in that location don't know what a bicycle is, and cameras watch it. The tellers know me as "the girl who bikes here".

across the street (22) is the bank where I have some loans, I used to ferry money back and forth a few times a month. Did the same thing but left the bike in the lobby (in front of cameras), until I ran out of tellers who didn't piss me off. Now I use a grocery store nearby instead, and have to lock up.

re the Lycra in August effect... I don't do lycra, but I do hate wandering into a place after sweating like a pig to get there. I feel like there is no safe radius of interaction, my funk must pervade unpleasantly, I can only hope it doesn't linger.

(edited to add: that DQ is in Penn Hills. Verona Rd is the road TO verona, once it gets there it's called Wildwood. it's been for sale for ever. the DQ, not the road.)

When I was in high school my local branch of PNC (in Delaware) let me use the drive through after I pointed out that the lobby closed before I got out of school and there was no other way for me to access the bank

I've gone through the Taco Bell drive through in West Mifflin dozens of times (usually very late at night)

It sounds as if banks are more willing to let you use the drive through than restaurants.

when I was 10 or 12 we used to bike through the McDonalds drive through. I'm sure they just didn't have a policy about it then. A riding lawn mower may also have been used

I use the drive-up ATM at the First Commonwealth in Bloomfield quite regularly on my bike, never had an issue.

Ive been thrown out of several banks. This

was the mellon at 5th / Craig. I should write

a long story about it. Short is: big sign

saying "open saturday"... only drive through

was open. coudl not bike through. went inside.

the people from the drive through were there.

they said it was only open to open new

accounts, but the drive through was open.

Same people in spinny chairs that did 180

's when somebody went into drive through.

I said I had no car, and was in hurry to

get cash out (atms only gave like 350 then)

Woman tells me that squirrel hill is open

to walk in, and its just a 5 minute drive.

I freaked out and security escorted me out.

I tried to bike through the Citizens Bank drive-up window in East Liberty last year. I wasn't familiar with the area and it was under construction, so at first I could only find the drive-up. They ignored me for awhile, then I knocked on the window and they (somewhat angrily) told me I had to go into the branch, which turned out to be across the street.

Is a motorcycle at the drive-thru much safer than a bicycle?

Time to get all Portland on their asses.

Let's just say that if I do decide to transact business at a fast food joint, am on the bicycle, and use the drive-thru, and am refused, then I will simply bring the bike inside if they do not have bike parking.

20 years ago, I helped change a few restaurants' smoking policies by swiping all the ashtrays on tables where someone wasn't already sitting. (For all y'uns under 30, restaurants usually had unseparated smoking and non-smoking sections, so a smoking table was simply one that had an ashtray. Thus, to extend the non-smoking section, just nab the ashtrays and stick them on the floor in a corner. Restaurants soon learned they could get along just fine with six smoking tables instead of 15.)

Same basic idea. Go ahead and kick ass. Seriously, raise hell.

Some of those comments about a cyclist being able to reach in the cashier window, rob the register, and escape in a manner unfamiliar to police - incredible. Implying that cyclists are nimbler, fitter, and faster than the average biggiesize drive thru customer? That's some high expectations. I'm flattered.