Boston city councilor eyes ban on motorbike deliveries: ‘Can no longer be the Wild West’

Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn is pushing for the city to ban mopeds scooters and other e-bikes from being used to make third-party food deliveries given the safety situation that he says those drivers create by flouting traffic rules Flynn on Wednesday plans to introduce an amendment to a mayoral ordinance that was approved by the City Council in April as a way to curb dangerous food delivery scooter operations The city ordinance requires all national third-party delivery platforms particularly Uber Eats DoorDash and Grubhub to obtain liability insurance for all workers utilizing their platform in order to receive a permit to operate in Boston Flynn s amendment would go a step further by banning those third-party drivers from using motorized bikes to make deliveries The city is unrealistically able to provide the required enforcement for hundreds of operators at the same time under currently s version of the ordinance the councilor contends For years the City of Boston encouraged large third-party delivery companies to have drivers use two-wheel vehicles while companies also incentivized workers to prioritize speed over safety to get more assignments and higher ratings Flynn stated Tuesday in a declaration to the Herald The consequence a significantly worsened pedestrian safety situation with mopeds and e-bikes going over mph through red lights and stop signs nearly every day No reasonable person believes rules of the road can continue to be optional It can no longer be the Wild West on the streets of Boston the councilor added Flynn mentioned residents have published safety issues with e-bikes and mopeds on a near-daily basis He announced the city has indicated that it was aiming to shift away from cars to two-wheeled vehicles for food delivery to decrease the number of cars on the road amid a higher demand for takeout Over the past couple of years the amount of mopeds e-bikes and other two-wheeled vehicles have tripled Flynn wrote resulting in residents safety and quality of life concerns for all residents and visitors Thousands of online reports have been filed for scooter and moped issues Residents have disclosed motorized bikes speeding down bike lanes and sidewalks to avoid traffic sometimes while going the wrong way blowing through red lights and nearly hitting pedestrians Drivers of those e-bikes are broadcasted as being aggressive when confronted by pedestrians and other road users per reports In July two months after the mayoral ordinance was passed by the City Council a resident attached two photos of aggressive scooter drivers riding down the bike lane on Boylston Street as part of a summary Good thing this isn t an crisis the resident wrote adding The scooters are still out of control If the mayor wants another four years she requirements to solve this difficulty now Related Articles Boston councilors decry crime as city stiffs police crime lab by million Battenfeld Boston poll a test of clout for former Mayor Marty Walsh District Boston City Council race likely headed to a recount after tight preliminary vote Critics make last-minute push to Mayor Wu to reject downtown Boston skyscraper plans Lucas Make way for Wu Four days ago a resident posted on Almost got expletive killed by an e-bike going mph on the sidewalk When are you going to regulate these things They are literally motorcycles Four months ago a resident posted on Expletive illegal scooter drivers whipping up and down this park consistently delivering food Anything the city can do about this I was just nearly ran over by one of these selfish expletive Mayor Michelle Wu s office didn t right away respond to a request for comment on Flynn s push to amend the city s third-party delivery road safety ordinance The Herald s requests for comment from UberEats DoorDash and Grubhub were not directly returned A delivery driver uses a scooter moped to deliver food along Boylston Street Tuesday Photo By Matt Stone Boston Herald