After heated debates on the subject for virtually a yr, Boston’s metropolis council not too long ago handed an ordinance addressing what it deems “harmful situations” brought on by scooters and e-bikes operated by meals supply drivers. As an alternative of holding these answerable 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 working purple lights, driving on metropolis sidewalks, driving the unsuitable method 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, lots of which allegedly concerned unregistered scooters working illegally throughout the metropolis.
“Boston can not be the Wild West,” mentioned Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents the town’s second district. “Whether or not it is automobiles, mopeds, grime bikes, electrical bikes, or bikes, everybody must be obeying the identical guidelines of the highway.”
Whereas nobody needs 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 outstanding gig corporations focusing on meals supply from eating places, however doesn’t apply to corporations that target grocery supply.
The presumed logic is {that a} DoorDash scooter driver choosing up a Chipotle burrito is extra more likely to entry sidewalks with a number of pedestrians than an Instacart driver in a big, open grocery parking zone. This overlooks the fact that almost all city grocery shops lack conventional suburbia-style tons, or {that a} grocery shopper is simply as more likely to ship to a high-rise residence 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 a minimum of a million orders per yr. However in terms of highway security, a scooter or e-bike driver’s recklessness would not often appear correlated to who gives his or her paycheck, any a couple of may assume {that a} Domino’s pizza supply driver is mechanically extra harmful than a driver from an area pizzeria. If something, drivers for bigger gig corporations could also be safer provided that these corporations often require their drivers to be a minimum of 18 years outdated even for scooter and bike supply, whereas native joints would possibly 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 cause 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 visitors legal guidelines designed to handle security issues related to meals supply drivers,” mentioned Councilor Erin Murphy, considered one of solely two councilmembers to vote in opposition to the ordinance. “Efficient enforcement of those present laws must be our major technique, fairly than introducing extra laws which may be redundant and burdensome.” (Sarcastically, Boston officers have even pushed using e-bikes for sure varieties of deliveries in recent times in an effort to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions.)
The proliferation of e-bikes and scooters in closely city areas raises essential 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 dedicate way more road house to the automotive.”
However as a substitute of taking a look at themselves—or the drivers really answerable for Beantown’s issues—Boston’s progressive planners apparently discover it a lot simpler to maintain concentrating on the gig economic system boogeyman.
