alentric

I am new to biking - I plan on commuting some days and I like to use my bike for local errands.
Yesterday I was told by CVS drugstore that I can never take my bike in the drive-through pharmacy pick-up.
Do you know if this is a company wide policy? If so, is there some pro-biking advocacy groups to complain to?

Hoz

I used the CVS drive thru on my bike couple weeks ago. Maybe the technician didn't know the policy.

maddyfish

Complain to CVS HQ loudly, and often.

ax0n

Before I moved closer to a CVS without a drive-thru, I rode through the CVS drive-thru at least twice a month for about a year, never a problem. They were usually happy to see me.

Jeffbeerman2

There must be some sort of scam with cycles or pedestrians in drive throughs. Why else would restaurants and others not ant the business?

Anyone know why these businesses refuse cyclists?

craptastico

This was discussed at length in a thread only a week or two ago and much of the consensus was there is some liability issues with insurance companies. If you are that concerned all CVS corporate and aske the question there.

lil brown bat

I don't want to dismiss anyone's concerns, but should this really be a high priority for bike advocacy groups to be dealing with?

Bruce_B

I think it's because most people (in the US anyway) can't see the bicycle as a legitimate vehicle. I've never heard of a drive-thru refusing a motorcycle.

mandovoodoo

Find out via the secr of state who process goes to in your state for CVS. Send a certified letter to the general counsel to that agent. It will get read. Be very specific and ask exactly what internal policy or rule is involved, whether the counsel thinks this rule is legal, and whether this is good business sense.

squeakywheel

The policy is the same at some fast food restaurants. I believe it is based on some misinformed idea about safety. It's worse in the case of late night restaurants that only have the drive-thru open because you don't have the option of parking and walking in.

I say keep trying. Have long discussions each time you are refused (especially if cars are waiting behind you). When you do give up each time, bring your bike into the store and wheel it around with you for a while preferably tracking dirt from your tires up and down the rows.

JohnBrooking

We can't answer your question about groups without knowing where you are, but there probably are. Google.

Here's an example of one way for an advocacy group to handle this. Here in Maine, our state advocacy organization just got a law passed last summer which includes a liablity waiver for companies who allow bikes to go through drive-throughs. They started out wanting to legislate that companies have to let bikes go through, but this watering down address the companies' primary concern and was a compromise the group decided it could live with. (The law also had a bunch of other good provisions in.) I'm sure our coalition director would be glad to talk to any other organization interested in passing a similar law about the experience.

Nationally, there is always the League of American Bicyclists. I don't know what their position or activity is on this, but it's worth poking around their site and maybe sending them an email.

Personally, the few times I've tried a fast-food drive through, I haven't even been able to activate the sensor that lets them know I'm there.

mikepoole

Just out of curiosity- where you told this while on your bike in the drive-thru or did you ask in advance?

Craig

My local bank refused me at the drive thru. Very annoying.

1ply

You still deal with a live person at a bank? Wow.

I haven't seen a real live person at my bank (since it has no branches) in about 10 years. The drive thru machines don't discriminate against me based on my mode of travel

wova4

You didn't pester the pharmacists to go fetch other things beside prescriptions, did you? Bag of chips and a roll of film? Some of them really, really don't like that...

CastIron

It's a DRIVE-though.

Sawtooth

Careful now....that is the same exact line of thinking that caused an irritated motorist to yell "its a road, not a bike lane" at me the other day.

You would not have trouble taking a man-pee in a "ladies" bathroom, would you? I would hope that most of us are not that concrete in our thinking.

concrete thinking (′käŋ′krēt ′thiŋk·iŋ)
(psychology) Mental processes characterized by literalness and the tendency to be bound to the most immediate and obvious sense impressions, as well as by a lack of generalization and abstraction.

duppie

Why can't you park your bike and walk in the store? The few times I had access to a car and using a drive thru, I found that it barely saves time.

Ask yourself, are you truly inconvenienced in a way that is unacceptable to you?

Worry about the things you can change; don't worry about those you cannot. It creates hypertension
Duppie

CastIron

Sawtooth you're taking my response a bit too seriously.

Sawtooth

Sorry, maybe it was the rolleyes wich usually means to me a show of disrespect to the poster, but can also show sarcasm. Maybe I am the concrete one today

CastIron

Just back-pedal your way through the drive through big fella.

GCRyder

I can tell you that it's because they're afraid that too many drivers won't be looking for a bike in front of them, and will just run over what they don't expect to see. My former secretary actually had that happen to her in a small car. The vehicle behind her was one of those hugely jacked-up pickups, and by the time he steered it around the corner of the building in the drive-through lane, his own hood blocked his view of her little Acura sitting at the window. His front bumper ended up in her back seat.

Schwinnrider

Or a moped, for that matter. I wonder how motorized bicycles fare in drive throughs?

2manybikes

Who cares what they think? Ride up to the window and say that your "policy" is to always bike to the drug store. Your "policy" is as important as theirs. Try it, all they can do is not serve you.

If you asked first you gave then the chance to say no. If you don't ask first it's harder for someone to say no. If you like the store don't go crazy about it, they had a super profitable year this year. They can afford to drop you as a customer.

My CVS is in Rhode Island, where's yours? Just wondering.

cerewa

I think one or two people guessed that it might be a liability insurance problem.

I kind of doubt that liability insurance is the problem. My suspicion is that cashiers, (who don't lose anything if a couple customers get mad at the company and shop elsewhere) have no idea what the management would really think about bikes in a drive thru, and assume their personal opinion about bikes not belonging in a drive thru is correct or is company policy.

Drive-thru lanes are no more likely to cause cyclists injury which would result in land-owner liability than parking lots or the inside of a store, as far as I can tell.