Dave de Sylva has nothing against coffee and burger restaurants: “I sign all kinds of real estate deals at Tim Hortons,” says the Markham developer. It’s the drive-thru service he can’t stand.
De Sylva dislikes drive-thru queues so much he decided to calculate the gas burned and tonnes of carbon dioxide spewed at Markham’s drive-thru establishments.
By his calculation, the cars lined up at Markham’s 29 drive-thru establishments uselessly burn 485,185 litres of gasoline a year. That’s enough to let an average car circle the globe 85 times. As for greenhouse gas emissions, de Sylva calculates the damage at 118 tonnes of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Nick Javor, a spokesperson for Tim Hortons, says de Sylva’s analysis is flawed.
Tim Hortons’ own study concluded there is “no air quality benefit to the public from eliminating drive-thrus.”
