Burger-rage horse dumps on McDonald's: Rider saddled with fat fine A Greater Manchester woman has found to her cost that if you turn up on horseback to a McDonald's drive-through window and are refused service, it's probably unwise to then lead your mount into the restaurant and let it crap on the floor. The unnamed horse-lover rolled up to the fast food outlet on Bury New Road, Whitefield, …
I haven't a clue as to why, perhaps someone fell over and was crushed under their harley once and there was a lawsuit. I was refused service at a drive though on my bike (just wanted a drink as it was a hot day). Odd but not a problem, other companies don't have an issue with it.
It's called a drive through and is designed for cars. It's intended for you to collect your food and drive off. It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist. It may be safe but it's not economic to serve just one fruit smoothie to a cyclist when you could be serving burgers and fries to whole family.
Sorry to sound grumpy but winging about not being able to use the drive through lane with your dog sled is just the kind of lazy self-entitled attitude I expect from a MacD' customer, not a noble commentard.
As for the nutter taking a horse inside, she should have had a fine for cruelty to the horse and reckless endangerment of the people inside. Humans and frightened horses do not mix.
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It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist. It may be safe but it's not economic to serve just one fruit smoothie to a cyclist when you could be serving burgers and fries to whole family.
How do you know that it is not safe? Have you done a safety assessment?
Do they really refuse to serve a single item? So someone buying a single 'Big Mac' should be turned away?
That is the 'pot-luck' situation. not everyone is buying a load of <redacted> for a whole family.
It sure sounds like you work for McD's....
I'm proud to say that I have only once tasted an item on their menu. It was so bad that after one mouthful, it went into the nearest bin. Since then, I have never felt the need to visit them again and if I have anything to say about it, I never will in this life.
It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist. ... How do you know that it is not safe? Have you done a safety assessment?
As a motorcyclist & cyclist I can assure you that it's not safe to ride while holding onto anything but the handlebars. One-handed riding simply isn't stable. Toll booth tickets, boarding passes etc. are a pain to deal with, let alone a bag of chips and greaseburgers.
Yeah, a tankbag can mitigate this but I think it's a fair policy; the rider has to get off to eat/drink what they bought, after all, so they might as well do it before buying their food.
Horses - large and panicky animals - in an enclosed drive through? Absolutely stupid.
I'm a motorcyclist too, and I agree it's not safe to ride while holding a Big MAC (etc).
It's equally unsafe when some frickin' moron tries to drive a car while stuffing their face with stuff just served to them by a MacDonalds drive-thru.
As a motorcyclist, I'm only to well aware how easy it seems to be to distract people (supposedly) driving cars from looking out of the big window at the front and taking notice of what they see...
Bloody drive-thrus should be banned full stop. If people want to eat while on a journey, they should damn well park, get out of the vehicle, sit at a table and eat.
As a motorcyclist & cyclist I can assure you that it's not safe to ride while holding onto anything but the handlebars
Cycling: I can hold a bag and have both hands on the handlebar by simply gripping the bag and the bar together. It's perfectly doable for just about anyone over the distance you have to cover to get out of the drive-through. Once out of it you may want to put it in a messenger bag, backpack or pannier, eat the contents or fling them against the service window as an act of protest, but at no point is it even remotely unsafe.
Motorcycling: put the bag between your legs, pull out of the drive-through, and proceed as above. In my case I could simply open the topcase and ask the service window person to put the bag in there. Which I have done at a not-McD drive-through.
"As a motorcyclist & cyclist I can assure you that it's not safe to ride while holding onto anything but the handlebars."
As a motorcyclist & cyclist I can assure you that I have carried cargo and been perfectly safe. There are these things called ruck sacks, tank bags, panniers and even top boxes (shudder).
"the rider has to get off to eat/drink what they bought, after all, so they might as well do it before buying their food"
What if they want to grab a burger on the way home after a night shift? McD's door is closed but the drive through is open, rider has a ruck sack or other vessel for safe carriage of cargo and they plan to eat at home. What then smart arse?
you put it into a ruck sack, tank bag, etc. then you are not holding it,
This is about getting a burger or something from a McD's Drive-through. Whether you move away from the window holding the bag in your hand, between your teeth or jammed between your arse and the saddle is not the point, but apparently some people want to assume you can only do the first, and base their condemnation of one's action on that assumption, considering it unsafe (which it's not).
"I'm proud to say that I have only once tasted an item on their menu. It was so bad that after one mouthful, it went into the nearest bin. Since then, I have never felt the need to visit them again and if I have anything to say about it, I never will in this life."
Blimey, talk about being on one's high horse.
Try a Big Mac, they're nice :oP
...It's called a drive through and is designed for cars. It's intended for you to collect your food and drive off. It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist. ...
It's not that difficult to look up their policies on this issue. They have gathered a number of criticisms, as several of their restaurants partly close at certain times and ONLY serve through the drive-in window at that point. If you try to obtain a burger while on foot at these restaurants you will be refused - you have to have a motor vehicle in order to obtain a burger!
The reasoning given by McDonalds is that the 'drive-in' section is designed for road-users and has no pavement. Therefore any non-road-user is at risk when using it. They interpret this to mean 'motor vehicles' - motor-cyclists and moped users will be served, but cyclists and, we have now found, horse-riders will not.
These rules are not completely logical. A cyclist is (if behaving properly) a safe road user, and should be as safe on a roadway as a moped rider. But cyclists are not served, while mopeds are. I think that it may be reasonable to refuse horses - the drive-in road could be restricted, and if a horse is spooked while in this constrained area it might cause damage or injury to itself or others.
"If you try to obtain a burger while on foot at these restaurants you will be refused - you have to have a motor vehicle in order to obtain a burger!"
Incorrect, I have been served as a pedestrian at the McDonalds drive through window of the McDonalds in Wandsworth after a large number of alcoholic beverages in a nearby drinking establishment (the Ship) when the main restaurant has been closed, I'm not proud of the fact but in fairness I was drunk, as was everyone else in the queue (yes, there's always a queue of drunk people when the pub shuts).
It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist
And it's not safe either to hand a cup of hot coffee to a driver who might dump it in his/her lap while driving off.
I've been refused service in a McD's drive-through while riding a SIDECAR motorcycle, so no risk of tipping over, ample place to put the bag anywhere SAFE instead of in my lap, and all this is perfectly obvious to anyone but the most moronic of burger-flippers.
"It's not safe to hand over a collection of burgers in bags and drinks to a cyclist or motorcyclist."
Says who? If I turn up on a motorbike and order a double cheese burger and chips, no drink, and put it in a ruck sack how is that any less safe than you ordering whatever in your car?
Sorry to sound grumpy but your I'm alright Jack, screw you comment is just the kind of lazy self-entitled attitude I expect from a MacD' customer, not a noble commentard.
A flashmob of motorised unicycles at this particular McD's would be a glorious sight
Its the poor schmoe behind the window I feel sorry for. I don't believe that independence of thought and action are encouraged at that level of employment. Be entertaining to see how well the manager handles it, mind you.
Never been stuck behind a cyclist for miles on the way home after a long day? Never been hit by them, and / or nearly hit by them?
Ever been stuck trying to get past a line of horses, only to get scowled out for 'scaring them' at 2mph by an over-privileged and under-clued? Do any get walked past your house, only to relieve their considerable bowel at exactly the same point, leaving a pyramid of faecal matter that then gets skidded on and splatted everywhere by innocent drivers coming around the corner?
Thought not.
Cyclists and horses are at best a serious inconvenience on the road, and at normal times a downright menace to their own safety and that of others.
I applaud McD's (no, really) for saying 'no, this is a DRIVE through'. Clue's on the tin, dim-bulbs.
Never been stuck behind a cyclist for miles on the way home after a long day? Never been hit by them, and / or nearly hit by them?
And this is relevant regarding what happens in a McD's drive-through, where things proceed at a pace not faster than the capability of the burger-flippers to hand out their wares to the consumers in the driveway, exactly how?
Wrote :- "Never been stuck behind a cyclist for miles on the way home after a long day?"
No.
" Never been hit by them, and / or nearly hit by them?"
No, but have been hit by cars both when on a bike and in my own car
"Ever been stuck trying to get past a line of horses,"
Sometimes.
Cars were nearly banned when they were first invented because they were such a danger and nuisance to most other road users - who were walking, cycling or using horses. Here is the order of grandfather rights on the road :-
1) Pedestrians
2) Horses
3) Pedal Bikes
4) Cars
5) Motor bikes
So in a 60" wide car you complain about being held up by a 20" wide bike or 24" wide horse. Whose fault is that? You should think about getting a narrower motor vehicle (clue - they are called M*t*rb*k*s).
"Cyclists and horses are at best a serious inconvenience on the road, and at normal times a downright menace to their own safety and that of others."
You could substitute the word "cars" in there and it would still be true. I'd like to ban all cars except mine, it would be far safer and more convenient for me. Unfortunately we all have to share.
I've been served at the drive-thru on my bicycle before but also refused at a different "restaurant" so it seems to be a poorly implemented policy. When cycling through France I was once asked to take my bike outside the store too.
Though I suppose you have to be a special type of retard to think taking a horse in is a good idea.
Though I suppose you have to be a special type of retard to think taking a horse in is a good idea.
I suspect that the drive-thru person told her that "we won't serve you here you'll have to go into the main restaurant" and in a moment of bloodymindedness in the face of such "health'n'safety" excuses decided to do just that.
Anyway, I'm hoping that the HSE will come along soon and do one of their regular "its not our fault" bits and point out how McDs could serve non-drivers in the drive-thru lane.
I've mucked out stables and shovelled fresh horse droppings and it's not that bad really. Perhaps the 'obvious distress' was at seeing a horse being brought into the restaurant, leading to an understandable assumption that it was destined for the kitchen. Ahhhh, ..... burgers.
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