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It's not often we get to recycle a post and help solve a small civic problem. Jacqueline Thorpe wrote in the National Post today about how idiotic drivers using Tim Horton's drivethrus were causing traffic chaos.
Well if those drivers could fire up Find By Click's handy dandy Tim Hortons google map mashup they could simply drive down to another Tim Horton's when the line grows too long and you start blocking traffic and annoying other businesses. You're welcome. But please please don't fire up your laptop while you're driving. Driving and minesweeper really don't mix.
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Why does it look so different from normal google maps? (aside from the obvious coffee cups)
In the pic shown, the eaton center has been replaced with a park, and the subway is visible as a train track?
Compare with actual google maps: http://maps.google.ca/?ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=43.654102,-79.381371&spn=0.008073,0.015965&om=1
The Tim Hortons map is probably just using an older version of the Google Maps API.
At the risk of nitpicking the Post article - for those who don't know, the first two Timmies cited in this article are the two closest to the National Post office.
The Don Mills-Lawrence one is indeed, poorly designed. But the driveway leads back out onto Don Mills prior to Lawrence so, while annoying, it's not "into the intersection."
And the one at Don Mills/York Mills (actually a couple of blocks west of Don Mills) is not even a drive-thru. It does, I admit, have a horrible parking lot. If someone is a slow parker that can back traffic up onto York Mills but since the car wash is literally right next door (the driveways are maybe 10 feet apart), obstructing its entrance is no major feat.
(There's also a Starbucks across the street so you can get some REAL coffee if there's a lineup!)
On a more serious note, last year McDonald's wanted to build a drive-thru on St. Clair near Bathurst and it got shot down for just these reasons. As a result the city has now passed more stringent requirements for drive-thrus. I know the new Timmies at the Pickle Barrel Plaza had to re-orient during construction so its driveway flowed into the parking lot rather than restricting traffic on Leslie Street.
So what's my point? Um, I guess that the article is flawed on multiple levels. You could just as easily write a rant on the people who back out of spaces really slowly in mall parking lots and, hey, what's up with THAT?!
Couldn't you?
DavidF
So, to recap