CONTACTTRAFFICABOUT TOM VANDERBILTOTHER WRITING CONTACT ABOUT THE BOOK
« Citizen Traffic Control
Thank God for the Second Amendment »

Drive-Thru Restaurant

Photo by nycblondieandbrownie/Flickr

I just finished a curious sort of early 21st century meal. I received a Twitter update that the “Schnitzel and Things” truck was in nearby Brooklyn Heights, so I hopped on the bike, grabbed me some schnitzel (and some sides), and returned home.

I wonder if this sort of trip (particularly non-motorized) is even captured by transportation planners; i.e., do “mobile food trucks” appear in Trip Generation or Parking Generation? (though the latter is probably moot in this regard as I’m not sure how many New Yorkers drive to the mobile food truck, though I’m sure they do for those Korean tacos in L.A.). More broadly, this food-transportation nexus is worthy of further study — it is, after all, one of the key reasons people leave the house. What do these invisible networks look like, how many food deliveries are made every night by NYC’s mobile army of deliverymen? I’m not sure if it matches in efficiency or intricacy the legendary dabbawala, or “tiffin wallahs” of India (particularly Mumbai).

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [MySpace] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Yahoo!]

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Traffic Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Drive-Thru Restaurant”

  1. Michiel Says:
    August 4th, 2009 at 1:14 am

    We have those food trucks in the Netherlands a lot. We go there by bicycle of course ;)

  2. Bossi Says:
    August 4th, 2009 at 9:17 am

    The Fojol Bros. in Washington DC do this, too:

    http://fojol.com/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisisbossi/3786604153/

  3. Sean Says:
    August 7th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    The trip to taco truck might be picked up via transportation surveys if you were to fill out a diary type survey where they asked for all trip information. In surveys that ask for work trips only this may not be picked up. Bike trips if short tend not be picked in since people tend to not count them as much as car trips.

Leave a Reply

Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

For publicity inquiries, please contact Kate Runde at Vintage: krunde@randomhouse.com.

For editorial inquiries, please contact Zoe Pagnamenta at The Zoe Pagnamenta Agency: zoe@zpagency.com.

For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact
Jenna Meulemans at the Knopf Speaker Bureau.

Order Traffic from:

Amazon | B&N | Borders
Random House | Powell’s

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [MySpace] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Yahoo!]
U.S. Paperback UK Paperback
Traffic UK
Drive-on-the-left types can order the book from Amazon.co.uk.

For UK publicity enquiries please contact Rosie Glaisher at Penguin.

Upcoming Talks

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [MySpace] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Yahoo!]
Twitter
August 2009
M T W T F S S
« Jul   Sep »
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31