Tim Hortons fixing drive-thru to save traffic snarls

A Tim Hortons in Fredericton is overhauling its parking lot to deal with traffic snarls at rush hour, thanks to its drive-thru.

The company is working with the city to reduce traffic snarls at its Prospect Street location — to make it easier for people to get to their caffeine.

"Tim Hortons is making changes to their parking lot, which will facilitate better traffic flow and give more queuing spaces for the drive-thru," said Darren Charters, a city traffic engineer.

The city is focusing on the entrance to the parking lot. They're moving the entrance away from a set of lights, after they had a number of complaints from drivers.

"The problem was the easterly-most driveway where people were lining up to get their coffee, they were backing out onto the street and into the signalized intersection, which was a safety concern for us," said Charters.

People in the neighbourhood are happy that the city is dealing with the traffic problem.

One student said her bus uses an entrance directly after Tim Hortons.

"It gets really congested, the whole area and created a lot of havoc for the buses and people trying to get to work, because the drive-thru line would be right out to the middle of the street."

The Prospect Street Tim Hortons isn't the only one in the city with long lines for drivers.

The one on Regent Street downtown has also caused a problem for traffic, but the city said it has no plans to do work there.