Have you been wondering if the restrictions on two-wheel bikes extend to motorcycles when you use a drive-through?
Yes, there are no restrictions for motorcycles, mopeds and scooters when using a drive-through service to order and collect your food. If you have a pedal bike, you cannot ride through for health and safety reasons.
Can you go through a fast-food drive-thru on a bike?
There has been some confusion regarding motorcycles to order and collect your food from fast-food restaurants.
Mcdonald has a policy that allows road legal motorcycles, including mopeds and scooters, to use their fast-food drive-thru facilities.
It seems a reasonable idea if you are riding a motorcycle through a drive-thru to take some extra precautions and be more vigilant.
Maybe the use of daylight running lights is a good idea. Why? When cars pull into a drive-thru, the drivers are not necessarily concentrating on what’s in front of them, particularly a motorcycle.
Motorcycles don’t have the physical presence of a car and could be easily missed while the driver is being enticed by pictures of food and indeed wanting to look at the menu.
The possibilities of a shunt increase by a significant amount, so take a centerline instead of keeping left where a car may try to squeeze past you on a very narrow lane.
Even when non-walking restrictions are in place, McDonalds has a policy that they will not allow pedestrians to use the drive-thru windows to purchase food.
If your vehicle is not road worthy, they have the right to decline to serve you also. However, the roadworthiness issues is a grey area, with most McDonalds personnel being unable to make that call as if your vehicle is fit to be on the road!
On reflection, the policy of not serving pedestrians through a drive-thru window seems to be a sensible idea although frustrating to pedestrians.
If you have a pedal bike well, you will also be out of luck in the drive-thru, health and safety rule the day, and you will not be served.
Why can’t you go through a drive-through on a bike?
Mcdonalds will tell you that it’s for your safety, and rightly so, you could be hit by a car and injured.
All McDonald’s properties are private land allowing access to the public to purchase fast food. If you were to have an accident on a pedal bike, you are unlikely to be uninsured as a motorcycle or car, which could open up a can of worms for McDonald’s.
Suppose the injured person on a pedal bike was to enter into litigation with McDonald’s and any other drive-thru facility for compensation. In that case, there is a possibility that the drive-thru could be found to be at fault and fully liable.
However, you cannot collect your food from a drive-thru window if you are on foot or riding a pedal bike.