Traffic delays drive more people to fast food: study
Traffic clogs roadways — and your arteries.
Unexpected slow-downs are driving motorists off the freeways and into fast food drive-thrus, a new study found.
In Los Angeles County, surprise gridlock causing a delay of 31 seconds per mile on drivers’ weekday commutes resulted in a 1% jump in visits to fast food restaurants, translating to roughly 1.2 million more trips annually, according to a new Journal of Urban Economics paper.
“This is a very salient time constraint for making decisions around dinner,” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economist Rebecca Taylor, who is one of the study’s authors, told The Post.
“I think from my own personal experience it’s, ‘I’m now getting home later. Do I really want to spend time cooking a meal?’”
The researchers made their juicy discovery by analyzing highway traffic patterns across the sprawling West Coast county from January 2017 to December 2019, along with cell phone GPS data showing how frequently people were visiting dining spots like the Taco Bell or In-N-Out.
To understand the hellish gridlock fueling hangry motorists’ decisions to opt for a greasy nosh, Taylor said “it’s like comparing 10 am traffic to 5 pm traffic.”
The unexpected slow-downs also were linked to a “slight decrease” in grocery stores visits, further bolstering the theory that traffic delays drive folks towards quick and easy takeout meals.
Bill Oakley, a former showrunner for “The Simpsons” turned fast food reviewer, recalled making a break for the nearest McDonald’s quarter pounder “dozens of times” over the years during headache-inducing delays on his commutes home.
“My patience is worn down, the glucose in my brain is low from the stress,” said Oakley, 58.
“If this was the 1970s, I’d be lighting up a cigarette, but now I’m gonna get off the freeway, get some joy.”
Decades of research, however, have shown the detrimental effects of fast food on people’s health, including the toll fast food may have on commuters’ waistlines.
A 2019 paper surveying 700 elementary school staff in New Orleans suggested commuters who had more fast food joints lining the roads on their way to and from work also had higher body mass index scores.
The recent paper suggested the findings are applicable to a slew of traffic-plagued cities nationwide — including the Big Apple, which has instituted a controversial $9 congestion fee — and offer another reason for politicians to try to pump the brakes on their cities’ gridlock.
“There are many reasons why we might want to reduce traffic, and here’s another…It’s encouraging unhealthy eating behaviors,” Taylor said.
