What makes a bicycle-safe drive-up window?

On Feb 5, 8:54*pm, wrote:
A question's come up regarding zoning requirements, to try to ensure
safe bicyclist access to drive-up windows. *A person who's pushing for
that requirement was told that "safe bicyclist access" is probably too
vague to be meaningful or enforceable.

So what might be specifics?

Here's what I thought of:

Prohibit any longitudinal gaps in pavement that are wider than, say,
1/2 inch. *That could be edges of drain grates, cracks, seams between
pavers or poured concrete sections, etc.

Prohibit smooth metal that would get slick in wet weather.

Keep it shoveled in snow? *Perhaps salted, if necessary? *(This could
be tough, since it's an ongoing maintenance issue. *But then, I think
businesses ought to be made to shovel walks for pedestrians too.)

Assure that any vehicle detectors must recognize the presence of a
bicycle. *That's in case some of the common fast-food drive-up designs
(where you shout in the mike at one spot, then pick up pseudo-food at
a window) might have loop detectors to tell when a vehicle's present.

Anybody got any other ideas?

- Frank Krygowski

Until last month, I had never had a problem getting "bike - thru"
service at a variety of fast food places, bank drive throughs and a
Walgreen's pharmacy. But late on a weekday night in January, after
indoor service was closed, I was refused service at a McDonald's drive-
through in Rockford, IL. Whatever the reason for the policy, there
was no immediate safety issue as there were no other vehicles in
sight. My annoyance was limited by the fact that my car was at the
nearby motel I had just checked into, so I went back with it.

I'm not a particular "there ought to be a law" type of person, so I'm
not in a hurry to look for a remedy for what appeared to be an
isolated incident. But apparently, some of the rest of you have had
problems, too.

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 19:12:31 -0800 (PST), Ron Wallenfang
wrote:


, after
indoor service was closed, I was refused service at a McDonald's drive-
through in Rockford, IL. Whatever the reason for the policy, there
was no immediate safety issue as there were no other vehicles in
sight. My annoyance was limited by the fact that my car was at the
nearby motel I had just checked into, so I went back with it.

If you can possibly avoid it, don't give business to a place like
that.