It's insane, where I live, how literally dozens of drivers, more than half of them in huge trucks, will idle in a Chick-fil-A drive thru for 25 minutes just to avoid walking 20 feet. No wonder Americans are obese.
One of the things that legit blew my mind moving from Northern California to Texas is how many freaking drive thrus there are here. It's wild. They are just attached to everything. I guess it's a byproduct of land being at less of a premium.
I think it's cultural, too. You might also notice that people drive up and down the parking lot at Walmart looking for a space just ten feet closer to the entrance. Getting out of the car and walking somewhere is anathema in places like Tx.
To be fair, restaurants prioritize drive thrus over customers inside the restaurant. It's often faster for me to get my food waiting in a long line at the drive through than it is to go inside where there's no line at all, but I'm still placed at the very lowest priority.
One of my first weird (culture shocky) experiences from USA (Tennessee) during my first trip there was with a drive thru.
I wanted to grab something to eat in the evening and there was a fast food place just across the street from my hotel so I decided to walk there. Once there I realized that the main part of the restaurant is closed and only drive thru was open. Then as I was there on foot they wouldn't serve me so I ended up walking to a petrol station down the road to actually buy something to eat which was quite scary as there were no sidewalks and I had to cross 6 lanes to get to the station.
The lifecycle of cars negatively impacts our environment, like the lifecycle of fastfood products. Additionally, both negatively impact human health. I can't really think of one positive thing to say about drive-thrus. They're convenient I suppose? Does that convenience really outweigh the damage?