WINNIPEG -- As more businesses try to reopen, many are trying to find ways to safely serve their customers, but when vehicles are used as a way to encourage physical distancing, it can have a negative effect on neighbourhoods.

A Winnipeg ice cream shop found out over the weekend, their experiment didn’t work quite as they hoped. But it’s not the only place testing the waters, trying to navigate these unprecedented times.

Drive-thrus, curbside pickup and delivery have served as lifelines for many shops and restaurants even though those changes can sometimes come with unintended consequences.

Owners of the Bridge Drive-In tried turning the iconic ice cream shop into a drive-thru to follow public health guidelines. It closed only two days later after complaints about traffic backlogs, blocked driveways and idling vehicles.

“I think that was causing a lot of headache in the community,” said BDI owner Jessica Jacob.

Owners plan to reopen BDI to pedestrians, so people can stand in line while physical distancing outside their cars.

“Potentially getting rid of the whole parking lot scenario and then social distancing through the lot,” Jacob suggested.

Elsewhere, people will be asked to stay in their cars at one restaurant in particular. That’s because Smitty’s is turning back the clock with a drive-in night this Thursday at their Regent Ave. and Henderson Hwy. locations.

“So like the old-style carhops, we’ve got the girls coming in — they’re super excited to finally be able to come back to work –and they’re going to run out to your vehicle and take your order,” said Smitty’s owner Valerie Funk.

Funk said her biggest concern is making sure people can practice physical distancing. For that reason, she doesn’t want customers to socialize outside their vehicles in the parking lot during the drive-in night, but Funk feels they have ample parking to handle such an event.

Christopher Storie, director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, said what happened at BDI was a unique situation, during an unusual time.

Storie said in other cases, such as food delivery drivers or people picking up their own takeout orders in neighbourhoods like Osborne Village, business adaptations may highlight, in exaggerated ways, parking or traffic issues that existed prior to the pandemic.

“Four o’clock in the afternoon, stopping on Osborne is not necessarily the greatest, yet these are the adaptations these delivery drivers and businesses have needed to make during a unique time in our city’s history and in our global history,” said Storie. “Definitely, there’s a change in traffic patterns and a change in the way people are interacting or functioning within those neighbourhoods with the way we need to currently adapt to the social distancing protocols and the way businesses currently need to operate to ensure public health and public safety.”

The City of Winnipeg said in a statement it’s trying to work with businesses to help them adapt, pointing to the implementation of curbside pick-up locations downtown and in the Exchange District and the temporary patio approval process.

“The city is employing a flexible approach with all businesses attempting to re-establish at a very challenging time,” the statement reads. “We will work with them to find service delivery models that allow them to operate without posing any significant impacts to the local community.”

Councillor Brian Mayes chairs the city’s property and development committee. Given the circumstances, he thinks adaptations businesses have made seem to be working well.

“To some extent there’s some trial and error here,” said Mayes. “There’s certainly some missteps that are going to take place but we do need to keep working with the business community, trying to help them reopen to the extent that they can.”

The city noted in addition to the curbside pickup locations, it’s also offering one-hour free parking at all parking meters throughout Winnipeg.