From the Globe on Sunday:
I signed up to drive for DoorDash. Now I know why food delivery causes traffic chaos.
The author's intervention recommendations are fairly unimaginative:
Before the city or state chooses to implement a new fee, here are several things it should try:
• Adding loading zone spots on busy restaurant blocks, ideally with additional signage on the post to make it clear that these spots are open and free for food delivery drivers.
• Sharing these and other loading locations with the delivery app companies, which can then direct drivers to the closest loading zone as part of their navigation service.
• Reminding drivers in the app that they should use loading zones, parking meters, and free restaurant lots when available.
• Once there are more delivery loading zones, instructing meter readers and police to give more warnings and tickets to drivers who are not using the zones. (In Boston, the ticket for parking in a bike lane is $100.)
• Threatening a potential statewide delivery surcharge, similar to the Uber and Lyft fees, as a stick to get the app operators to take the issue of blocked bike and bus lanes seriously.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm working on a study right now looking at best practices for preventing illegal standing/parking in bike lanes (thank you to everyone who took the survey about impacts, we got over 1300 responses!). Loading zone reform certainly has a part to play, but simply providing these and "reminding" drivers to use them will not make a significant impact. Other cities have been successfully piloting "smart" loading zones that essentially allow the reservation of loading zone space ahead of time. This works better for "institutional" delivery like UPS or business delivery as opposed to gig work, but can work well for gigs too if the gig apps can be compelled to comply, and compelled they must be. Traditional loading zone enforcement is becoming increasingly difficult because how is the enforcing agent supposed to know if the random toyota corrola in the loading zone is parked illegally or dropping an instacart order? Shifting as much of urban delivery, particular small scale deliveries like many gig apps tend to be, to e-cargo bikes, is also necessary. Some cities are piloting specific loading zones for cargo bikes, but these are ongoing and I don't have conclusive data to share.
In addition to loading zone reform, some other things that need to be taken into consideration:
*Scheduling. Blockages are most common at weekday peak hours. Creating incentive structures to encourage non-peak/overnight/weekend delivery can help alleviate some of the problem.
* Enforcement reform. Automated bus lane enforcement has been highly effective where implemented. California is expanding this to allow bus cameras to conduct enforcement on bike lanes. I could not find hard research on this, but several anecdotal instances where mandating cops do a certain amount of their shifts on bikes lead to a significant increase in enforcement. Citizen enforcement has also been highly successful in Malibu, where there is no bounty and you have to sign up and go through 96 hours of training to be a part of the program. Unfortunately even in NYC and DC this has been considered too politically toxic to go through with. One can only imagine the impacts of a robust program that includes a bounty.
* Construction. Right now there is no requirement to accommodate a bike lane that's disrupted due to construction/road work like there is with a sidewalk. This can and should be remediated.
* Design. Unsurprisingly, drivers block protected bike lanes less frequently than unprotected ones. Wider lanes, even unbuffered, also resulted in less blockages.
* There has to be a stick component. There has to be. I cannot over state the universality of disdain and dismissal received from both institutional and gig delivery drivers*, as well as the general "driving public" as seen in the facebook responses to municipalities that shared our survey.
Edit: to clarify, we did specific outreach to 15 delivery/rideshare driver communities on reddit.
