Is It Illegal For The Dairy Dan Drive-thru Line To Spill Out Onto The Road?

Here's a question for you.

Is it illegal for the drive-thru line of Dairy Dan to spill out onto the road?

Have You Ever Waited in the Driving Lane for Dairy Dan's Drive-Thru?

If you've ever been to Dairy Dan in Holt before, you've probably run into and experienced this issue yourself. I was there just last night, and thankfully I remembered this issue that occurs before I attempted to get into the drive-thru line.

When everything is said and done, the parking lot is a little bit on the small side, and the line is always hoppin', especially on warm, sunny days. So much so that the drive-thru line usually spills out onto the street of people waiting to get into the parking lot.

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Cars traveling north on Cedar attempt to turn right into the parking lot, and those traveling south on Cedar have an even harder time trying to turn left into the parking lot. Not to mention, it's right near that crazy busy intersection of Cedar and Willoughby, which certainly doesn't help the situation.

In doing my research to find out if it's illegal, I took a good look through the Michigan.gov website page for Traffic Laws FAQ. And in all honesty, it reads kinda like stereo instructions. But I did my best to find any instruction on how to handle the spilling-out-onto-the-road situation, and I couldn't find anything there. I did find some info that applies to this situation from Legislature.mi.gov. It had this to say,

(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person, without authority, shall not block, obstruct, impede, or otherwise interfere with the normal flow of vehicular, streetcar, or pedestrian traffic upon a public street or highway in this state, by means of a barricade, object, or device, or with his or her person.

So, it seems that yes; it is illegal to wait in the drive-thru line if it spills out onto the road because you would be impeding traffic. That would be considered a civil infraction.

So the next time you're really hankering for that hot fudge sundae, consider finding a different place to park instead of waiting in line in the street.