Would you give up your drive-thru cup of coffee to avoid another ice storm or flood? Mayor Hazel McCallion is right on the bean with her suggestion that car idling bylaws start being enforced at drive-thru restaurant lanes.
In her parting year, the 93-year-old mayor of Mississauga, Ontario wanted to stir things up and have folks wake up and smell the coffee. If you must order from your driver’s seat, do it in three minutes, or turn off the ignition while you wait beyond the legal limit for idling.
All this mass run-on at drive-throughs, not to mention at banks and driving schools, is a bad olive in the atmospheric cocktail. Our fumes fuel climate change, simple as that. We contribute more than enough exhaust in traffic jams and general travel. Why can’t people change in even a small way and give the drive-through a bypass? Some people exit their car but leave it running for extended periods on a smog day so a passenger can have air conditioning - I’ve seen that happen in my bank parking lot.
Hazel has hit on an important issue. Canada could ban drive-throughs outright and I would be happy. Unfortunately politicians come up against the wall of behavioral intransigence - a public unwilling to change its behavior, a public that believes the drive-through culture is normal and cherishes it like a human right. Never mind that there’s an obesity epidemic. A walk to the counter, we could all use the exercise.
The US report this week painted climate change as a clear and present danger. We are beings who would choke out our oxygen and propel climate disasters all for a hot coffee in a non-recyclable cup.
Clean air and climate stability, or a double-double to go? I think the choice is clear.
Hazel was right to zero in on bourgeois idling. She hinted at dishing out a $150 fine to idling drivers at drive-through line-ups. Too bad she was only joking.
Now, idling drivers, regarding those littered coffee cups and take-out bags . . .
In her parting year, the 93-year-old mayor of Mississauga, Ontario wanted to stir things up and have folks wake up and smell the coffee. If you must order from your driver’s seat, do it in three minutes, or turn off the ignition while you wait beyond the legal limit for idling.
All this mass run-on at drive-throughs, not to mention at banks and driving schools, is a bad olive in the atmospheric cocktail. Our fumes fuel climate change, simple as that. We contribute more than enough exhaust in traffic jams and general travel. Why can’t people change in even a small way and give the drive-through a bypass? Some people exit their car but leave it running for extended periods on a smog day so a passenger can have air conditioning - I’ve seen that happen in my bank parking lot.
Hazel has hit on an important issue. Canada could ban drive-throughs outright and I would be happy. Unfortunately politicians come up against the wall of behavioral intransigence - a public unwilling to change its behavior, a public that believes the drive-through culture is normal and cherishes it like a human right. Never mind that there’s an obesity epidemic. A walk to the counter, we could all use the exercise.
The US report this week painted climate change as a clear and present danger. We are beings who would choke out our oxygen and propel climate disasters all for a hot coffee in a non-recyclable cup.
Clean air and climate stability, or a double-double to go? I think the choice is clear.
Hazel was right to zero in on bourgeois idling. She hinted at dishing out a $150 fine to idling drivers at drive-through line-ups. Too bad she was only joking.
Now, idling drivers, regarding those littered coffee cups and take-out bags . . .
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