I can’t believe it took this long.

After living here for almost two years, I’ve determined it is necessary to add an “Only in Madison” section to this website.

In a Cap Times article,  Eric Sundquist, a member of the Madison Plan Commission and former Atlanta newspaper reporter proposes restricting or banning the drive through in Madison.  Quoting:

“Given the concern about all the carbon going into the atmosphere, I’m not sure we should be building more places for people to sit idling in their cars,” says Eric Sundquist, who was appointed to the citizen panel by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz this spring.

A former newspaper reporter in Atlanta now working as a researcher at the UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Sundquist notes that several cities in Canada have recently moved to ban the drive-through coffee shop or stand-alone fast food restaurant.

Seriously, what happened to American ingenuity?  Are we now forced to copy  bad ideas from Canada?

For good or bad, the car is part of the American way of life.  Most of us (even in Madison) own cars and many of us need them to commute to our jobs, pick up our children, and grab supplies at the local Target.  Rather than try and fight this and make it more difficult for a mother with three screaming children and a station wagon full of supplies to get her much-needed caffeine, why not try and devise a better drive through?

Here’s a simple thought – why not build a drive through with a simple incline.  This would allow motorists to kill their engine while they wait for the barista to process their latte, yet move forward once the car ahead of them receives their chai tea.

Now, I know I’m only a recent journalism graduate, not a reporter-turned-researcher like Mr.  Sundquist, but banning seems like a lazy attempt to solve a problem.  I admit we must make changes as a country, but lets use our best assets – our intelligence and creativity – to come up with logical solutions rather then bad ideas that hinder the majority.

Other possible solutions encouraged in the comment section.