What’s the Point of These Silly New Hudson Valley 2 Lane Drive Thrus?

It seems most of these drive-thrus only have one operating lane half the time anyway.

Now this is an opinion piece here, and keep in mind I'm not even much of a fast food person these days after dealing with health issues late last year. I try to avoid fast food for the most part, but even if I'm picking up food for someone else, this is something that has been on my mind for some time regarding these two-lane drive-thrus at many fast food restaurants.

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I guess a few years back a lot of fast food chains decided to do costly renovations, and those renovations included adding a second drive-thru lane at these establishments.

Assuming much like traffic circles (another argument I can get into at another time) but I guess they have been proven to work for traffic flow, I don't think I feel the same way regarding duel drive-thru lanes.

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I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times I've waited in one of these drive-thrus (even when both lanes are open) for a much longer time, than when there was just one lane. That's right, a longer wait even with two open lanes.

Now how about the fact that most of these places never even have the second lane open? Could be due to lack of help, which I get, but who knows? Still frustrating. All I know is that they are usually cordoned off by traffic cones.

A Lot Of Money Wasted

Not sure about elsewhere, but I've been through the Taco Bell and Burger King (both very popular fast food restaurants) drive-thrus around Poughkeepsie and other parts of the Hudson Valley and they only have a single drive-thru lane, and things seem to run rather smoothly. Pretty fast and efficient as far as traffic flow goes, so if they can get along fine with the single-lane drive-thru, why do McDonald's and Wendy's feel the need for two? Seems like the upgrade was an unnecessary one and a costly one.

Again, IMO.