Coffee congestion

Drive-thru traffic for the Tim Hortons outlet near the corner of Airport Boulevard and Bennett Drive in Gander is stretching beyond the parking lot, and the town council is hoping to alleviate the safety concerns of residents.

Each weekday in Gander, there's a chance drivers heading west on Airport Boulevard may come across a portion of drive-thru traffic awaiting their double-doubles on the street. While some drivers may be patient enough to wait for the line to move forward, others are swerving around the line-up by switching to the lane turning left into the KFC outlet.

The line-up problem extends to drivers looking to enter Tim Hortons by making a left turn off of Airport Boulevard. With the line already started on the street, drivers have no immediate way of gaining a spot, otherwise they must park their vehicles.

Coun. Rob Anstey, chair of the public safety committee, said a number of complaints have been received from residents about the level of traffic in the area resulting from the drive-thru lane.

"If you come through the lights on Bennett Drive and head towards the Town Square, and you're stopping there with a line of traffic back towards the lights, and then coming up, there's another line of traffic on the opposite lane going towards Bennett Drive that's trying to turn in (to Tim Hortons - they have to wait," said Coun. Anstey.

"Then, you have two lanes coming out of Tim Hortons - one turning towards the Town Square and one that turns towards Bennett Drive. They're trying to cut out across everybody, and the people coming from Bennett not trying to get into Tim Hortons are coming around, so they have to get into the other lane."

The safety concern created by this congested traffic scenario is real, and Coun. Anstey said the Town may have to look at ticketing drivers for obstructing traffic.

"Then the question comes, are they really breaking the law by doing that? Are you allow to stop, wait, and turn into somewhere? Maybe there's not even a law being broken, and maybe we can do nothing about that."

One option not being discussed is the implementation of a community-wide ban on drive-thrus.

"How do you put on ban on drive-thrus when, as a town, we're giving permits and licences to people to put up new buildings containing drive-thrus. That kind of step to me is ludicrous. We need to find a way to fix this problem without being drastic."

He said the Town spoke with representatives of Tim Hortons last year about the issue, and said the possibility of moving the entrance was brought up.

"One of the things that was talked about was maybe moving the entrance going into Tim Hortons farther down towards the Bank of Montreal. That way, when the cars go in, they'd go across the front of the Tim Hortons building before (drivers) went around the back. You'd get a few more cars off the street, because you'd have a bigger line-up on the inside."

However, Coun. Anstey said Tim Hortons determined such a move would cause the business to lose parking space.

"I think we have to go back to Tim Hortons and see if there's some way we can have a look at the land behind the building. Maybe we can take the drive thru lane and bring it out farther along the back of the building before it circles in and around to the (drive-thru) window."

He admitted the problem will not go away by itself owing to the ever-enduring popularity of the Tim Hortons brand.

"Everybody likes their coffee, and everybody loves Tim Hortons. As a community, it's great to see businesses come here and flourish, and here we are now trying to get more businesses to come here and people to come here. For sure, the problem is not going to get smaller - if anything, it's going to probably get even bigger." The councillor added that now is as good a time as any to come up with a solution, given the portion of Airport Boulevard in question will be repaved this summer.

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