By Milena Fernsler
Oh, the weather outside is frightful … but thankfully you don’t have to face the frigid Boston wind to pick up your lo mein next door. An irresistibly convenient alternative is at the fingertips of most Americans. With the aid of a delivery app, a courier can deliver a steaming dinner to your doorstep within the hour. But what are the consequences of all the mopeds, motorized scooters and e-bikes necessary to carry out these orders?
New regulations for delivery companies in Boston will go into effect in January, the city’s most recent attempt to address safety concerns involving micro-mobility vehicles.
What began as a lifeline for restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to gain rapid popularity, according to a City of Boston press release. Colin Zick, president of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, said the volume of food deliveries has “skyrocketed” since 2022, and according to the Boston Transportation Department, so did 311 reports related to delivery vehicles.
The ordinance requires companies like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub to insure their drivers, mandates licensing for all delivery vehicles and makes Boston the first city in the U.S. to pass regulations that require data-sharing from delivery apps.
“This ordinance going into effect is long awaited,” said Sharon Durkan, city councilor of Beacon Hill’s District 8, and a driving force behind the new regulations. “This is one of the top issues I hear about across the district, not just in Beacon Hill.”
However, delivery companies pushed back against mandates during a public hearing last February. Uber’s public policy manager, Katie Franger, said their current insurance only covers motorized vehicles, and that if they are unable to find a way to insure all couriers, those who rely on bicycles may lose their jobs. She said umbrella insurance would also raise costs for residents and contradict the city’s efforts to lower carbon emissions by prioritizing gas-powered vehicles.
“We were trying to strike a balance between understanding that this is folks’ livelihood, but also understanding that safety in the city of Boston and license and insurance is incredibly important,” Durkan said.
A pedestrian died weeks after being hit by a food delivery driver riding an e-bike in Back Bay in September, which inspired further discussion among city council members.
“Unfortunately, these individual incidents are a symptom of a bigger problem,” Durkan said. While crash report data does not specify vehicle type, councilors say it’s clear smaller motorized vehicles pose unique safety hazards due to their ability to weave through traffic.
Councilor at-large Ed Flynn, took a more restrictive approach in September with a proposed ban on scooters, mopeds and e-bikes being used by third-party food delivery drivers. The ordinance faced pushback from councilors who cited concerns about penalizing delivery drivers instead of companies.
This concern has not prevented an increase in police enforcement. In an effort BPD refers to as “Operation Safe Scooter,” officers have been cracking down on moped and scooter violations in recent months. In October, Beacon Hill’s district officers seized three mopeds, issued citations and chased down and arrested a motorcyclist for disregarding traffic laws.
Zick says he would like to see even more targeted enforcement in Beacon Hill. “Usually the drivers are masked,” he said, “so you can’t identify anyone who is doing those things that are threats to public safety.”
An informal survey sent to Beacon Hill residents by the Beacon Hill Civic Association last month found that 88% of 123 respondents reported seeing scooters driving the wrong way or on sidewalks in the past 30 days. Thirty-seven percent said they witnessed violations daily.
Andrew Blau, a Beacon Hill resident who was walking his dog Billie, said he can’t count the number of times he and his pet have nearly been “clocked by moped drivers going the wrong way down one way streets.”
“People think it’s almost like a bike, where they can kind of just go wherever they want to go,” Blau said.
Scooter driver Joshua Acosta has been working for Uber Eats for about two years. He said it takes a lot of experience to navigate Boston streets without breaking laws.
“Those who go the wrong way make us look bad as well, since we are both driving on the same vehicle type,” he explained in an interview translated from Spanish. He said Uber Eats provides no training or safety enforcement for their workers.
Acosta sees a bigger problem with e-bikes, which do not require registration or a driver’s license in Massachusetts as long as they do not exceed 20 mph. However, the speed of an e-bike can be difficult to distinguish from the outside, sometimes blurring the line between a bicycle and a moped.
“Cyclists go on the sidewalk,” Acosta said. “(some) drive in electric bikes, which can run 40 to 50 miles (per hour) like a scooter.”
Durkan said another gap in the new regulations is that not every moped and motorbike driver is a third-party delivery driver. “It’s not going to solve every single issue,” she said.
Even so, she said she hopes the ordinance is a positive step toward solving the problem.
“I encourage all Beacon Hill residents to reach out to me to see the effect potentially of this ordinance and any differences they see moving forward,” she said.
Milena Fernsler is a student in the Boston University Journalism program. This story is a partnership between the Beacon Hill Times and the Boston University Journalism program.