Drive-Through Windows

Question

Robin asked:  What are the Florida laws concerning using your bike at a drive through at banks and fast food places?  I went through the drive through at BOA yesterday and they served me as surprised as they were, but I was just wondering nonetheless.

Answer

There is no statute that directly addresses that.  Such establishments are private property, and even if available for public use, the owners can establish policies they deem appropriate.  Some businesses have precluded bicyclists from using drive-through windows.  I do not know of the reasons and if someone is confronted with such a policy, I recommend asking the management to change it.

14 Comments on “Drive-Through Windows

  1. If the business will not allow you to use the drive thru lane, bring your bicycle into the business and use the walk up window. They obviously don’t consider your bicycle a vehicle. Therefore, they should not object to you bicycle at the walk up window. I’ve never been told I can’t bring my bicycle inside.

  2. The reason for most places not wanting a bicycle in the drive through is because there have been a few accidents with people in their cars not seeing the bicyclist, especially at night.

    • Bank and credit union drive-thrus are ordinarily not open in the evening; after-hours transactions are usually handled at an ATM somewhere on premises. In the daytime, reasonable speed pulling forward in a drive-thru lane is not much more than 5 mph. Under these conditions, a non-impaired motorist should have little difficulty seeing a properly operating cyclist in a drive-thru lane. If collisions with cyclists are such a risk, why are cyclists allowed to enter bank/credit union properties at any hour of the day to use the on-site ATM or, during business hours, to conduct their business inside the building? Bicycle prohibitions in bank drive-thru facilities, if they exist, make little sense.

      In any case, the rise of online banking is making bank drive-thru facilities increasingly obsolete. Drive-thru lanes at fast-food restaurants probably have a future.

    • Bicycles riders are afraid to leave thier bikes unattended do to thefts,Food chains dont have anything that you lock your bike up!

  3. Another reason for no bikes is to keep people from ordering and then pulling a gun and robbing them and disappearing since they have no tags to show who they are. I would say for personal safety. You could talk to the night manager and explain that you ride your bike and would like to come through the drive window at a certain time at night, once they know who you are they might let you.

    • I talked to the manager at Burger KIng and he would not change the policy for me. No bikes can use the drive thru. If they do it for one they will have to do it for all. The lobby closed at a certain time and only the drive thru was open, just go some place else.

      • Not sure what city you live in, but I just left a Burger King that let a guy go through on his bike. What pissed me off was that he went around the cars in the drive thru and ordered at the window. Then he mean mugged me as I impatiently waited.

  4. I refuse to give my business to a company that discriminates a person based on his mode of transportation.

  5. So long Walgreen’s, Told them the needed a sign at the entrance to the drive up window: NO VEHICLES ALLOWED

  6. The main reason businesses use as an excuse to deny drive thru access to bicycle riders is liability. The easy solution is to refuse to move until you are served liked every other vehicle under the law.

    • was served by THIS person with negative comments regarding NON MOTERIZED vehicle. OTHER servers never commented. Called WALGREENS NATIONAL. They NEVER RESPONDED.

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