From Pine View Farm

Taking Fat Chances for Darwin Awards 2

Business owners along northbound U.S. 202 in Talleyville (Delaware–ed.) know it’s lunchtime by the honking.

Around noon each day, motorists waiting to place orders at the McDonald’s drive-thru window back up into the roadway north of Fairfax, holding up traffic in the right lane and forcing drivers behind them to brake for the fast-food line.

The story goes on to report that there have been accidents and even more near-misses and that the line blocks entrances to other businesses in the block. The McDonald’s has hired extra staff for lunches and posted warning signs, which are ignored.

This stretch of the Concord Pike (which columnist Ralph Moyed used to call the “Conquered Pike”) is a six-lane wide (sometimes 10 with turning lanes) suburban shopping strip with small businesses, some medium-sized shopping centers, a couple of hotels, and a mall, all packed closely together.

If I recall correctly, the speed limit is mostly 45 with a stretch of 35, limits most drivers wave to on the way to 60.

Savvy locals learn quickly the streets to use to avoid 202 (my favorite was Shipley).

The McDonald’s sits on a small lot in the middle of the block. It serves the same cookie-cutter garbage as every other McDonald’s.

There is no accounting for taste.

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2 comments

  1. Bill

    January 26, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    202 is a general mess from I-95 to the PA line.  McDonald’s doesn’t serve anything worth waiting in line for let alone risking an accident. 

     
  2. Frank

    January 27, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    I had a catalog of shortcuts for getting from Shipley or Silverside to the side street nearest to where I had to go on the Pike. 

    My favorite took me back across Shellpot Park.