How much of an impact would banning drive throughs have on the use of petroleum?

Question

Think about it, how many lard-butts are out there right now parked in a drive through at Micky D's, yapping on their cell phones, while they're waiting for their supersized Big Mac combo with a Diet Coke.

How many millions of gallons of gasoline and tons of exhaust would be saved or eliminated if these lazy **sses parked their cars and walked inside to get their daily dose of lard?

Answer 1

Less then it would take to get crazies like you off this planet.

Answer 2

Lose of jobs.  

Insulting people due to their size is not cool.

Answer 3

Essentially none.  You need to get a life and put aside your hatred.

Answer 4

Sounds like you might be a little upset at how slow the line is moving in front of you.

Answer 5

This is a good argument for plug in hybrids which don't idle when stopped.

"Additionally, plug-in hybrids, like conventional hybrids, don’t idle when sitting still. Estimates are that in urban driving, idling translates to about 10%-15% of total vehicle carbon emissions."

and

"Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are outfitted with a battery pack sufficient to power the vehicle from 20 to 60 miles on battery charge alone. Considering that half the cars on America’s roads are driven 25 miles a day or less, a plug-in with a 25-mile range battery could eliminate gasoline use in the daily commute of millions of Americans. The cost of an equivalent electric gallon of gas is estimated to be less than $1.00."

"Gets about twice the fuel economy of a conventional vehicle and 30-50% better fuel economy than a standard hybrid. "

http://www.pluginpartners.org/plugInHybr...

These guys make a prettty good argument for plug in hybrids.  Later when the electric grid is cleaner, we can have all electric vehicles, not that they can't be part of the mix now.

Answer 6

Little if any actual impact.  Your diatribe is quite funny, it indicates a high level of jealousy of those people who actually have cars and money to spend. Do you feel bette now that you got your whiney little rant off your chest ????

Answer 7

Edmunds

I figured they would be the most mainstream and skeptical. Guess what? In What Really Saves Gas? And How Much? the Edmunds folks said you could improve fuel economy by as much as 19% by avoiding excessive idling. Their recommendation? Shut it down if you're stopping for more than a minute. This was the longest amount of time recommended by any of the media sources, which I would expect given their love of car culture.

California Consumer Energy Center

This page busts several myths, and comes to the conclusion that "more than ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine." They also say that "component wear caused by restarting the engine is estimated to add $10 per year to the cost of driving," which they think will be recovered from the savings from not idling. According to this source then, I can go ahead and shut the engine off if I'm stopping for 10 seconds or longer, and I don't worry about the wear and tear. The Canada Office of Energy Efficiency backs this up, too.

Answer 8

The design of drivethrough could certainly be improved by having the vehicles drive up to a higher elevation, then roll down with engine off. This would then be no more problem than parking and walking in.

But that is not really your question. When we evaluate how many minutes the average car operator spends in these drive thru lines, compared to minutes driving, would we have 1%?  No, closer to 0.1%. Then we look at fuel used, it will be about .025% of total automobile fuel used. ( vehicles really do use more fuel driving at even 50 km/h)

Now there are many other things we could do that would cut consumption by more. When we are doing those things we do not look like hypocrites calling for a ban on drive thru.

Drive thru has a much greater impact on exhaust pollution in the immediate area around the restaurant, and we might choose to stay away from that area, particularly not park and walk in tho THAT restaurant.

Answer 9

I don't think that it's a drop in the bucket compared to Gore's private jet.  Oh yea, he pays for his carbon foot print...  Got it!  He pays with your money to his own pocket...  

How about the petroleum that produces the electricity that powers your computer long enough for you to post that question?  

How about with all American industry moved to China and there are no jobs here in the US, since we want to stop 'global warming' who is going to support all of the alarmists while they sit at home saving the world?

Great question