E-bikes and the future of transit

GlobeAndMail.com
July 24, 2023

On most weekend nights, the last commuter trains out of Toronto are packed with the delivery riders and their bikes, heading home to the suburbs.

This is a new kind of commuter for Ontario’s GO Transit, which has lost many of its traditional office-bound passengers since the pandemic began. Instead of welcoming the e-bike brigade, agency staff sometimes choose to hassle them by strictly enforcing the limit of two bikes per train car.

There’s no doubt that these bikes are bulky and could pose a problem if they blocked train doors. But the callous treatment of couriers is at odds with the welcome mat GO rolls out for touring cyclists, who can take the train to wine country with their bikes riding in a specially adapted car full of racks.

Beyond poor manners, the crackdown on e-bikes speaks to a larger failure of GO Transit to imagine the future of commuting. An agency that has long assumed its passengers would drive to the station should be encouraging people who arrive by bike, including by letting them bring their wheels on board. Why doesn’t every GO train include a special car equipped to carry bikes?

In response to social media reports that some riders were stranded at Toronto’s downtown station overnight after being prohibited from boarding, the agency did say it was working to provide more on-board bike options. Good news, but this shouldn’t have taken a PR black eye.

In fact, the needs of the delivery economy should prompt cities and municipal services everywhere to reconsider how they operate. Why does Vancouver’s transit agency, like GO, allow only two bikes on each train car? Why can’t Toronto have more functional water fountains and benches, where people can relax between jobs? Why isn’t clearing snow from bike lanes in a country as wintry as Canada considered a basic workplace safety issue everywhere?

Even if someone doesn’t care about this new breed of worker that has appeared on the scene, improvements aimed at them will be enjoyed by others as well. An aging population needs benches as much or more than delivery riders do. Creating transportation options that allow people to move seamlessly from one type of vehicle to another is standard in the world’s greatest transit systems – to the benefit of all.

And there is a fundamental issue of fairness and consistency: GO Transit is happy to accommodate one type of commuter, at great expense. That would be drivers, who enjoy free parking at many GO stations.

To a point, cities and transit agencies may be excused for their lumbering reaction to the rise of the delivery economy, which has been in some ways shockingly rapid. For decades, delivery of restaurant fare was severely limited. Canadians needed to make the trip themselves for takeout, for the most part. App-based services using Uber’s model of gig workers upended the old reality. Suddenly, for only a few bucks, people could get almost anything delivered to their home. A hamburger and a margarita? Coming right up.

When the pandemic hit, delivery really took off. According to Statistics Canada, which in 2022 measured the gig economy, there were 207,000 people delivering food or other goods through an app last year. For about one-quarter of them it was their main job.

There are obvious drawbacks to this new economy, including precarious employment, the production of a huge amount of garbage and a disincentive to go out, and reducing the social mixing that is one of the great benefits of urban living. And, yes, delivery riders who block sidewalks, or speed alongside pedestrians, are irritating and sometimes dangerous. But the convenience of these services, coupled with demand on the part of well-heeled urban residents, makes them unlikely to go away. Cities need to start taking seriously the needs of their workers.

It is galling that there are still politicians who act as though bike lanes are an elitist frill that gets in the way of traffic. It is inhumane that many cities have so few public toilets that delivery riders are forced to urinate in alleys.

Because of high real estate costs in Toronto and Vancouver, delivery riders serving residents of these cities often live in suburbs and commute to their jobs. In that sense, they are just like millions of other commuters who can’t afford to live in the central city.

The only difference is, they need to bring the tools of their trade – a bicycle – on the train with them.