After heated debates on the subject for nearly a yr, Boston’s metropolis council just lately handed an ordinance addressing what it deems “harmful situations” attributable to scooters and e-bikes operated by meals supply drivers. As an alternative of holding these chargeable for the unsafe road situations—the drivers themselves—the council as a substitute determined to focus on supply platforms.
In June 2024, the Boston police division and Mayor’s workplace warned supply corporations of an impending crackdown based mostly on what they described as “widespread and ongoing incidents of operating pink lights, driving on metropolis sidewalks, driving the unsuitable manner down one-way streets, driving at speeds in extra of posted restricted, and collisions.” The mayor’s workplace cited over 100 complaints filed within the final yr concerning reckless moped drivers, a lot of which allegedly concerned unregistered scooters working illegally throughout the metropolis.
“Boston can now not be the Wild West,” mentioned Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents the town’s second district. “Whether or not it is automobiles, mopeds, filth bikes, electrical bikes, or bikes, everybody must be obeying the identical guidelines of the highway.”
Whereas nobody desires an inflow of scooter-related accidents—and few, if any, would endorse issues like driving on sidewalks in closely foot-trafficked areas—Boston’s ordinance is curious in its selective utility. It particularly applies to distinguished gig corporations focusing on meals supply from eating places, however doesn’t apply to corporations that concentrate on grocery supply.
The presumed logic is {that a} DoorDash scooter driver selecting up a Chipotle burrito is extra prone to entry sidewalks with a lot of pedestrians than an Instacart driver in a big, open grocery car parking zone. This overlooks the truth that the majority city grocery shops lack conventional suburbia-style tons, or {that a} grocery shopper is simply as prone to ship to a high-rise house in a busy space as a driver carrying a 5 Guys order.
Additional including to the arbitrary nature of the brand new ordinance, it solely applies to supply corporations that fulfill at the least a million orders per yr. However relating to highway security, a scooter or e-bike driver’s recklessness would hardly ever appear correlated to who supplies his or her paycheck, any a couple of might assume {that a} Domino’s pizza supply driver is robotically extra harmful than a driver from a neighborhood pizzeria. If something, drivers for bigger gig corporations could also be safer on condition that these corporations often require their drivers to be at the least 18 years previous even for scooter and bike supply, whereas native joints may make use of 16- or 17-year-old excessive schoolers for cheaper labor (16 is the minimal age to function an e-bike in Massachusetts).
One purpose for the clunky and selective utility of the brand new ordinance is that it’s drivers, not e-platforms, who’re behind the wheels of a scooter or e-bike.
“Boston already has complete site visitors legal guidelines designed to deal with security considerations related to meals supply drivers,” mentioned Councilor Erin Murphy, one in every of solely two councilmembers to vote in opposition to the ordinance. “Efficient enforcement of those current rules must be our major technique, fairly than introducing extra laws that could be redundant and burdensome.” (Mockingly, Boston officers have even pushed the usage of e-bikes for sure forms of deliveries lately in an effort to cut back greenhouse fuel emissions.)
The proliferation of e-bikes and scooters in closely city areas raises vital coverage points that deserve considerate deliberation. As senior fellow on the Manhattan Institute Nicole Gelinas has identified, a lot of the “battle” between scooters and pedestrians has been “created by transportation planners who pit walkers, cyclists and now scooterists in opposition to one another by persevering with to commit much more road area to the automotive.”
However as a substitute of themselves—or the drivers truly chargeable for Beantown’s considerations—Boston’s progressive planners apparently discover it a lot simpler to maintain concentrating on the gig financial system boogeyman.
