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  #1  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 4:32 PM
adam adam is offline
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Drive Thru Rage?

Maybe the entrance for the drive thru wasn't where she expected it?
Ban drive thrus! They isolate people from their communities.
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  #2  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 4:52 PM
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An unstoppable force encounters an immovable object...
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  #3  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 9:42 PM
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Doesn't sound like she was Drive Thru customer at all, but one the righteous ones who's seen the light and was parking to walk inside, thus being 'part' of her community.

In what may be one of the most frustrating/bizarre trends Ive noticed recently is people using bank drive thrus--they drive up, put their vehicles in park, GET OUT and stand at the drive up ATM...can't get my head around that one.
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  #4  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 10:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adam View Post
Ban drive thrus! They isolate people from their communities.
This is the clear solution to the problem of people driving through buildings. Well done.
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  #5  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 11:10 PM
markbarbera markbarbera is offline
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The drive through ABM is one of the most ridiculous drive through concepts out there, just behind drive through Elvis wedding chapels drive through beer stores. How long before the introduction of drive through dental offices, drive through law offices and drive through pharmacies? Honestly, save yourself some gas and park it now and then.
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  #6  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 11:20 PM
Millstone Millstone is offline
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Originally Posted by markbarbera View Post
The drive through ABM is one of the most ridiculous drive through concepts out there, just behind drive through Elvis wedding chapels drive through beer stores. How long before the introduction of drive through dental offices, drive through law offices and drive through pharmacies? Honestly, save yourself some gas and park it now and then.
I like drive thru ATMs. What's your beef with them? Also in Thunder Bay there is a drive thru pizza joint.
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  #7  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 11:23 PM
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There's also drive thru Beer Store, now there's the most ridiculous drive thru concept ever.
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  #8  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 11:35 PM
markbarbera markbarbera is offline
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At risk of being labelled old-fashioned some things deserve more attention than what one can provide through the rolled down driver-side window. If you are doing your banking from your car then it's likely you are not giving your finances the attention they deserve.
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  #9  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2008, 11:50 PM
geoff's two cents geoff's two cents is offline
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Originally Posted by Millstone View Post
I like drive thru ATMs. What's your beef with them? Also in Thunder Bay there is a drive thru pizza joint.
1) Drive thrus encourage people to drive, which in turn fosters a demand for wider roads (like Main st), more freeways (Red Hill), and more parking lots (downtown Hamilton and the Mountain).

2) More people driving leads to less pedestrian-friendly communities, worse air quality, less demand for good transit infrastructure (why does it take forever to get from where I live near downtown on a Saturday or Sunday to the Mountain area?), more noise from vehicles, higher temperatures from all the pavement and concrete (a recent post - can't remember where - noted that the temperature is several degrees higher in the city than the countryside), a less healthy population, and all of the aesthetic/economic nastiness that goes along with that. I should add that more people driving also drives (no pun intended) up the price of fuel so that even people who have made an environmentally-conscious decision to get rid of the car end up paying more for food and basic services.

3) If you have to walk by one (heaven forbid!), a bank with a drive thru takes up usually twice as much streetfront space, and is much uglier to look at - the banks downtown are by and large nicer from a pedestrian's perspective. Banks, I'm sure, love the fact that they don't have to hire as many tellers, but those costs end up being extended to taxpayers and consumers anyways - they have to pay to insure and fuel their vehicles, and everybody pays more taxes so that city infrastructure (lights, sewage, policing, etc.) can cover kilometers of highway-side big-box stores and parking lots.

4) I think most people would admit that a city's reputation stands or falls on the reputation of its downtown. Haven't suburban malls and drive-thrus and freeways (and the people who want them - this is a democracy after all) been a huge part of the reason why downtown Hamilton is what it is?

Of course, if you have the money to live in an air-filtered house and drive an air-conditioned car, and happen to like the way giant, mostly-empty parking lots look, happen to own a bank with a drive-thru or a paving company, dislike the very idea of downtowns, or simply have little or no conscience regarding passing all of these environmental, economic and health problems onto your children, grandchildren, the poor, etc., I wouldn't expect any of this to bother you.
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  #10  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 12:42 AM
adam adam is offline
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Originally Posted by fastcarsfreedom View Post
Doesn't sound like she was Drive Thru customer at all
On the contrary, she was a drive-thru customer to the highest degree!
And Geoff you're right, nature is evil and yucky!
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  #11  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 12:52 AM
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markbarbera--living under a rock? Drive-thru pharmacies are common. I would also add that considering the use of a drive-thru ATM to be somehow an indicator of fiscal irresponsibility is a ludicrous extrapolation. I don't often use them to be honest--they frustrate me--I have long arms and still struggle to reach most of them--let alone inevitably being behind someone who's either out of their car standing at the machine or has pulled up to the damn thing completely unprepared and spends 5 minutes rooting through their wallet. However, I do use them on occasion, park on occasion--and, believe it or not, go to the bank quite often when I'm out on a walk or run...
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  #12  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 1:04 AM
JoeyColeman JoeyColeman is offline
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It about Tim's open a few store with driven-thrus!
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  #13  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 1:09 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geoff's two cents View Post
1) Drive thrus encourage people to drive, which in turn fosters a demand for wider roads (like Main st), more freeways (Red Hill), and more parking lots (downtown Hamilton and the Mountain).

2) More people driving leads to less pedestrian-friendly communities, worse air quality, less demand for good transit infrastructure (why does it take forever to get from where I live near downtown on a Saturday or Sunday to the Mountain area?), more noise from vehicles, higher temperatures from all the pavement and concrete (a recent post - can't remember where - noted that the temperature is several degrees higher in the city than the countryside), a less healthy population, and all of the aesthetic/economic nastiness that goes along with that. I should add that more people driving also drives (no pun intended) up the price of fuel so that even people who have made an environmentally-conscious decision to get rid of the car end up paying more for food and basic services.

3) If you have to walk by one (heaven forbid!), a bank with a drive thru takes up usually twice as much streetfront space, and is much uglier to look at - the banks downtown are by and large nicer from a pedestrian's perspective. Banks, I'm sure, love the fact that they don't have to hire as many tellers, but those costs end up being extended to taxpayers and consumers anyways - they have to pay to insure and fuel their vehicles, and everybody pays more taxes so that city infrastructure (lights, sewage, policing, etc.) can cover kilometers of highway-side big-box stores and parking lots.

4) I think most people would admit that a city's reputation stands or falls on the reputation of its downtown. Haven't suburban malls and drive-thrus and freeways (and the people who want them - this is a democracy after all) been a huge part of the reason why downtown Hamilton is what it is?

Of course, if you have the money to live in an air-filtered house and drive an air-conditioned car, and happen to like the way giant, mostly-empty parking lots look, happen to own a bank with a drive-thru or a paving company, dislike the very idea of downtowns, or simply have little or no conscience regarding passing all of these environmental, economic and health problems onto your children, grandchildren, the poor, etc., I wouldn't expect any of this to bother you.
First of all, my question was asking markbarbera what his problem was with drive-thru ATMs specifically, not drive-thrus in general. Several drive-thru ATMs, for example, take up very little footprint when put in a corner of a parking lot by themselves (Meridian CU, Fort Erie). Tim Horton's has a drive-thru format that can take up a small footprint.

I do not get your last paragraph. An "air-filtered" house? Are you implying, that as a downtown resident, I should be living in a slum? A crackhouse? Please explain your point. I make money and do own a car (it's even "air-filtered") and enjoy the amenities of downtown, suburban and rural areas.
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  #14  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 1:35 AM
geoff's two cents geoff's two cents is offline
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My beef is with drive-thrus in general - I detest all drive-thrus equally.

Although some drive-thrus take up less space than others, they all encourage people to idle their cars while they wait for those in front of them. My beef is also with the way drive-thrus encourage an exaggerated car-culture generally.

I don't recall mentioning a slum or crackhouse. Like many people, I live in an older rental suite in a nice neighborhood near downtown and, because I don't have central heating, the air in my living space is essentially no different from the air outside. I don't live in a slum or crackhouse. I did not mention an air-filtered car either.
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  #15  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 2:14 AM
hamiltonguy hamiltonguy is offline
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I hate drive through atms. People stand up to use them because most are impossible to reach from inside cars.
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  #16  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 6:31 AM
highwater highwater is offline
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Ah yes. The awesome majesty of the drive-thru ATM:

http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200710.html
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  #17  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 9:27 AM
markbarbera markbarbera is offline
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Originally Posted by fastcarsfreedom View Post
markbarbera--living under a rock? Drive-thru pharmacies are common.
Again, at risk of being chided as ludicrous, I certainly would not trust my health to a pharmacist whose business concept is modelled after a McDonald's franchise. "Would you like fries with your Lipitor, sir?"
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  #18  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 10:49 AM
Millstone Millstone is offline
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Originally Posted by highwater View Post
Ah yes. The awesome majesty of the drive-thru ATM:

http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200710.html
That's hilarious. Fortunately we don't see that type of building here. Also check out Jim Kunstler's podcast every Thursday (even though it's very liberal).
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  #19  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 1:11 PM
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ryan_mcgreal ryan_mcgreal is offline
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Originally Posted by Millstone View Post
Also check out Jim Kunstler's podcast every Thursday (even though it's very liberal).
I've been reading Kunstler for a few years now, and I find him to be profoundly conservative. He argues that the end of cheap, abundant energy will force a restoration of traditional land use, transportation and social arrangements. His foreign policy views, while less informed than his urban sensibility, are pure realpolitik.
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  #20  
Old Posted Jul 30, 2008, 3:17 PM
highwater highwater is offline
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Originally Posted by Millstone View Post
Fortunately we don't see that type of building here.
...Yet. Hope I didn't give anyone any bright ideas.

I also find Kunstler to be a member of the Curmudgeon School of small 'c' conservatism. He pretty much hates anything and everything post-war (WWI, that is). Always a fun read though, even when I disagree with him, which isn't often - I'm a curmudgeon too.
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