Making single-serve food delivery work
Greenwich has a complicated relationship with drive-thru businesses. Folks tend to enjoy the convenience, but typically we prefer not to have them in our neighborhood. Planning & Zoning rules reflect that, and business owners who want a drive-thru must come to the board with site plans, impact statements, business plans, financial projections, etc., just for starters. Once the request is placed on an agenda, board members consider each application carefully, taking into account increased traffic, noise, additional pressure at intersections, pedestrian safety, location, proximity and so on. On the night of the meeting the concept is presented, board members grill the presenter, and more often then not the board says nope, you’re not quite there yet, try again. Which of course they do.
All of which is to say that the Town of Greenwich does not make it easy for businesses to have a drive-thru component.
And to be fair, there are any number of good reasons why Greenwichites over the years haven’t been keen on drive-thrus. They increase congestion on the main roads. They negatively impact air quality with lines of idling cars. They promote an increase in transient traffic with highway drivers rushing off the ramps to hit the drive-thru. And as town resident Cricket Beebonnet probably told us, “They’re just tacky.”
So there you have it. Greenwich has successfully spent decades carefully balancing the desires of restaurants, fast food owners and banks who want the drive-thru, with the desires of residents who know they want the convenience, but really don’t want the headaches associated with the increases in traffic. Hooray!
Except now, and especially in light of the way corona has Changed Everything, every restaurant and many food purveyors in town have become unwitting drive-thrus, and we’re seeing exactly those negative effects P&Z works so hard to limit. UberEats, Grubhub, Instacart ... all these services have linked up with nearly every restaurant and food market, swelling the number of cars on the road and all the local headaches that involves. A perfect representation of the law of unintended consequences.
Riverside Commons now has at least four businesses that are prime spots for these pick-up services. Even pre-corona, a typical noontime at Riverside included a steady stream of anxious, frustrated gig workers speeding through those tight spaces, idling in the fire lane waiting to pick up a sandwich, burrito or a latte. When open, Greenwich High School was inundated with waves of delivery guys. Traffic on the Avenue was multiplied with double-parkers adding to an already crowded scene. Now during corona, the call for delivery and pick-up has increased exponentially.
I know restaurants need all the help they can to get through this immediate crisis, but things likely have changed forever. I was speaking with the owner of the new Greenwich Fish Company who told me he’s thrilled with business so far, but very surprised by the volume of pre-prepared take-out and delivery compared to just, you know, selling fish. Business models for stores and restaurants are being modified on the fly and post-corona normalcy will very likely see a permanent commitment to expedited food delivery services.
That’ll mean more zooming motorists, noise and air pollution, and a spike in agitated in-person customers who are often treated as afterthoughts to the online orders.
So what, if anything, should be done? Well, until enough of us wake up to the idea that this new normal is terrible for the environment and grim for the gig workers, single-serve food delivery is here to stay. You certainly can’t legislatively tell the food businesses to stop either, as this is their new livelihood. However, now that we know the effects of increased food delivery services, let’s lean into it and make it work for Greenwich. These delivery companies and their employees are using and increasing pressure on our taxpayer-funded roads. Maybe we should follow the example of other cities and install per-order surcharges, or require multiple deliveries per trip. Then use any revenue generated to help step up enforcement of speeding, idling and dangerous driving. Or maybe something else. Regardless, we should plan for this, because the convenience of a home-delivered latte isn’t worth chipping away at the charm and character of our town.