The first time we asked Salt Lake Tribune readers to name the worst drive-thru in Utah, the responses came in from all over — with particular attention to the Chick-fil-A on 2100 South in Sugar House.
After publishing our first compilation of bad drive-thrus, we asked readers to keep the suggestions coming. And readers — including a former planner for Salt Lake City — found a driving headache that’s even worse.
That location is the Starbucks in Foothill Village, at 1440 S. Foothill Drive.
“The cars lining up often make it difficult for northbound traffic on 2300 East to enter the shopping center’s southernmost access,” said Elizabeth Giraud, a former planner for the city.
The cars traveling south, turning off Foothill Boulevard onto 2300 East, she said, “come flying around the corner, potentially clocking the cars in the queue for Starbucks or those turning into Foothill Village from the south.”
(Rachel Rydalch | The Salt Lake Tribune) A Starbucks location on Foothill Drive in East Bench frequently has a long drive-thru line, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. The traffic often builds up onto city roads causing congestion.
She added that “exiting Foothill Village from this access is also a nightmare — it’s difficult to see around the cars if you’re brave enough to turn left. If you’re turning right, you just hope that the drivers barreling down 2300 East see you. You’re turning right from a stop — they’re at full throttle — it’s really unnerving.”
The location, Giraud said, used to be a Blockbuster Video — and serving coffee as a drive-thru isn’t an appropriate use for the site.
Tribune readers complained about the cars coming into the shopping center.
“Cars entering from 2300 East can be backed up to Foothill Boulevard and then cars turning into the Starbucks drive thru from Foothill Village South exit create a myriad of obstacles for other vehicles,” one reader wrote. “This drive-thru is not just annoying, it’s potentially dangerous.”
Another reader wrote: “Two cars in line blocks the entrance into Foothill Village, but the line often curls around and blocks 2300 East and Foothill.”
(Rachel Rydalch | The Salt Lake Tribune) A Starbucks location on Foothill Drive in East Bench frequently has a long drive-thru line, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. The traffic often builds up onto city roads causing congestion.
Beyond the traffic safety problems at the Foothill Village site, Giraud said, is the emissions generated by slow-moving or idling cars — which is especially problematic during the winter, when inversions make the Salt Lake Valley’s air dangerously dirty.
“I realize in a drive-thru they might not want to turn on and turn off their engine, but I just see idling everywhere,” Giraud said. “Like in parking lots, with people checking their phones. I just see it all the time, and I just wish people would end that habit, because it isn’t good for our air quality, and it just seems like just a simple change.”
Early warnings about Chick-fil-A
Giraud joined the chorus of Tribune readers who criticized the Chick-fil-A in Sugar House — a location that the city’s transportation director, Jon Larsen, said was his office’s top complaint generator.
The location at 1206 E. 2100 South sometimes has cars backed up on the street all the way back to 1100 East, Girard said. It’s so bad, she said, that she avoids traveling east on 2100 South, except on Sundays, when the restaurant is closed.
A year or two ago, she said, she called up a former colleague at the city, who retired late last year, who told her “you’re like the third person that’s called me this week about this.”
The former colleague told her the city’s planning commission OK’d the location as a “conditional use” site. “What the planning commission was thinking when they approved this chokehold is beyond my imagination,” Girard said.
Chick-fil-A came before the commission in 2010, with a request to tear down the Lonestar Steakhouse that had been there to make room for the drive-thru.
According to the minutes of that meeting, commissioners and their staff saw the drive-thru as “a major concern.”
During public comment on the plan, a member of the Sugarhouse Community Council voiced the concern about the added traffic a drive-thru would bring. Another speaker said he thought moving the drive-thru to the building’s back wouldn’t help traffic flow.
A representative for Chick-fil-A said the company would make design changes, including moving the restaurant’s main entrance to face 2100 South and putting the drive-thru around the back of the building — and urged the commission to approve the plan pending those changes.
The commission voted unanimously to approve Chick-fil-A’s project, contingent on its compliance with the Sugar House Business District master plan, including facing the front door toward 2100 South and moving the drive-thru to the back of the building — which it did.
However, traffic problems still resulted, and Chick-fil-A now is working with the city to try to alter the site to alleviate some of the backed-up traffic.
More reader suggestions
Tribune readers sent in complaints about several bad drive-thrus, and some suggestions on how to fix them.
The Nielsen’s Frozen Custard at 570 W. 2600 South in Bountiful, prompted one reader to wonder “how a location can get approval for building with such obvious issues.”
This reader said they “have seen numerous close calls as westbound traffic coming down the bill is backed up in the street. The local police should issue citations to those in the blocked lane as they are a traffic hazard, trying to get their sweet fix.”
The reader’s advice to customers: “If there is a line out into traffic they should drive on and come back when it’s not so busy.”
Another reader cited three Salt Lake City locations “that get on my nerves”: The Cafe Expresso at 1100 E. 900 South, Red Moose Coffee at 1693 S. 900 East, and “the notorious Sugar House Chick-fil-A.”
“My question for these establishments is, rather than refine their drive-thrus, why don’t they abandon them all together?,” this reader wrote. “Consider how much space six customers take up standing in line, rather than idling on sidewalks and making streets less safe for pedestrians, cyclists and fellow commuters.”
Two readers didn’t single out specific locations, but expressed concern about the pollution that comes with drive-thrus.
The drive-thrus, one reader wrote, are “certainly a traffic congestion problem. However, I believe the greater threat is the car emissions from the single, double and triple drive-thru lanes at the many fast-food franchises.”
Another suggested that “on our inversion/bad air quality days, local governments or clean-air advocacy groups could partner with restaurants to give incentives to people who park and walk in for take-out food rather than sit and idle in a drive-thru line. … Every time I see the astonishing lines of cars at drive-thru-only Swig/fizzy-type drink stands, I feel like the ozone is thinning above that location and perhaps the view of the place will soon be obscured by dirty air.”
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