##VIDEO ID:Kr6EVYU33Yc## for being here and especially to thank all of my colleagues and leaders in the community for helping us get to this point of filing legislation with the Boston city council at the city level to address an issue that has been raised as a serious concern on our streets and for safety and quality of life today we're here with Partners in elected office City councelor Sharon Durkin and state representative Jay Livingstone Partners in community including Meg maner Cohen president of the Back Bay Association and Leadership across our city departments commissioner Michael Cox from the Boston Police Department chief Yasha Franklin hodj of our streets cabinet Chief Brianna mour of our community engagement cabinet aidong commissioner Emily Shay let me see if I missed anyone okay con got everyone each one of these departments alongside our Community Partners and government at all levels plays a critical role in making Boston a home for everyone all of these teams and everyone here is out in our neighborhoods every day making sure that what's top of mind for our residents is at the top of the agenda in City Hall as well and what we've been hearing from residents all over the city is that delivery drivers on mopeds and scooters have been creating dangerous conditions on our roads in the past year we've received more than 100 311 reports from residents about mopeds Running Red Lights riding on sidewalks weaving in and out of traffic and going the wrong way down oneway roads speeding down residential streets and causing collisions these practices aren't just against the law they put our residents lives at risk it's not safe for anyone the delivery drivers pedestrians cyclists other vehicles on the road and anyone else trying to get around our city we're very proud that Boston is the safest major city in America and the work that it takes to make that happen across every department and agency across every neighborhood in partnership with our residents means not only working to deter crime but actively create opportunities and expand access to resources that make communi safe true true safety is about more than just addressing violence it's also ensuring that everyone can move around our city knowing that everyone on the road is driving safely legally and responsibly that's why commissioner Cox and chief y Chief Franklin hodj sent a letter to the companies the executives at door Dash GrubHub and Uber Eats several months ago calling for them to address the use of unregistered vehicles on their platforms it's why the Boston police department has stepped up enforcement on traffic violations and it's why today we're filing an ordinance with the city council that will require food delivery platforms to obtain a permit from our transportation department to qualify for this permit companies like door Dash GrubHub and Uber Eats will have to meet two key requirements first they'll need liability insurance coverage for all their delivery drivers so that residents and drivers are protected in the event of a collision and second food delivery platforms will be required to provide the city with data on these deliveries including the types of vehicles drivers are using which neighborhoods see the highest demand and crucially drivers speeds with a deeper understanding of where deliveries are concentrated what vehicles are being used and how fast drivers are traveling the city will be able to improve roadway design better enforce traffic laws and ensure that our streets stay safe for everyone so I want to thank everyone here for their work in addressing this issue I know you'll hear from a little in a little bit from our state representative as well but I want to thank rep Livingstone for his leadership at the state level pushing for the types of regulations across all of our communities that really enhance and complement in some many ways mirror uh what we're trying to do here today at the city level we've seen tremendous success when the public sector and the private sector come together for the safety of our residents we saw it in the early regulations around tnc's and when Uber and Lyft were just new to our streets having those parameters to share data to track and to get the companies to take action on the vast information they already have on the behavior of their employees and their drivers that directly translates into saf on our roadways in our neighborhoods we're trying to do the same thing here because these companies already know everything about where their delivery drivers are going with the information they have from the apps on the phones of their drivers which is how they pick up the orders how they deliver them how they report uh the different drop offs that they're making the companies already have the information within their systems of who was driving the wrong way of the unsafe behaviors that are taking place this will help ensure that we are getting that into oversight of our public sector and that the city and hopefully the state will be able to partner together on making sure that we're then creating Economic Opportunity in a way that actually enhances quality of life in our neighborhoods okay before I pass it on man B door Das GrubHub Uber Eats e Gracia um and thank you so much everyone for your collaboration in this so I'll just read the uh order of the next speakers and everyone can kind of flag it for the next person based on the the order taped up here next is Chief Yash Franklin Hajj then commissioner Michael Cox commissioner Emily Shay um president of the backbase association Meg Meer Cohen councelor Sharon durken and then rep J Livingstone uh thank you mayor woo uh and good morning everyone I am Yasha Franklin hjj and I serve as chief of streets uh for the city of Boston food delivery apps support restaurants and provide convenience to Residents however their explosive and unregulated growth in recent years has generated unintended consequences and created safety concerns on our streets we hear from people in nearly every neighborhood that the impacts of delivery services are negatively affecting quality of life with unsafe driving illegal parking and increasing congestion this past summer with our colleagues at the Boston Police Department we launched an education and enforcement campaign to inform delivery drivers about their responsibilities to register two- wheeled vehicles and to follow the rules of the road we have seen better adherence to those requirements and the city has followed through with increased enforcement but the delivery companies need to step up and do their part safety on our streets is not only the responsibility of individual drivers but also the platforms who recruit and dispatch thousands of people to make deliveries usually with little or no safety training and operating under a system of financial incentives that encourages speed above all else this ordinance creates an insurance requirement that establishes a business incentive for these companies to focus more on safety not just profit companies will be required to provide coverage that offers recourse to anyone injured in a crash with a delivery driver regardless of the type of vehicle they are operating or the insurance status of that driver we hope that this will encourage delivery companies to use the ample data that they already collect about the operations of their drivers to provide some self- enforcement of the rules of the road and to identify people who who are driving in ways that put others In Harm's Way this ordinance also creates a data sharing requirement that will provide us a critical tool to identify and address safety and congestion impacts right now without data we are forced to react to to manage to manage delivery hotspots after problems occur and when frustrated residents reach out to the city for help under this ordinance the companies will share basic data such as the types of vehicles used to complete deliveries when and where restaurants experience the highest number of orders how quickly trips are completed and how long Vehicles idle on our streets access to this information will allow us to proactively adjust parking regulation target enforcement and work with restaurants to minimize negative impacts of delivery the data required does not identify customers or drivers rather it provides us a basic window into the operation of an industry that puts tens if not hundreds of millions of miles on Boston streets every single year only the big technology companies that operate on-demand food delivery apps are subject to this ordinance local restaurants who offer their own delivery and traditional shipping companies like UPS or FedEx are not subject to these new rules our goal at the streets cabinet is simple help people move safely and easily wherever they need to go however they choose to travel the widespread problems caused by the unregulated growth of app based delivery have made our streets less safe and made it harder to get around our city food delivery apps bring business and convenience benefits to Boston however these benefits do not have to come at the expense of Public Safety and well functioning roads they do not have to come at the expense of people feeling safe walking in their neighborhoods the price of convenience cannot be fear injury and chaos us on our streets the common sense regulations that we are proposing can preserve the benefits of food delivery while helping keep our streets safe and moving I thank the mayor for her leadership and taking action on this issue and I also thank my colleagues for the work that they have done to develop this ordinance and to address the concerns that so many constituents have raised to us we look forward to working with the city council to make this proposal a reality and our partners at the state legislature to look at state level action thank you very much and I will turn it I will turn it over to commissioner Cox thank you you know we all have a role to play particularly when it comes to improving safety and quality of life in our neighborhoods as um as a community we're safer and stronger when we all partner in working together and that includes the business Community we're asking the corporations to do their part in helping keep pedestrians and drivers safe in our city those people that I'm referring to that we want to keep safe includes the drivers themselves who are making these deliveries for these large large companies this industry is growing and to ensure Public Safety um is factored into the growth it's wise to set expectations and regulations to promote good safe operations uh as we continue to always uh support the city and providing great Public Safety uh you know we just want should remind folks of their responsibility particularly uh even the corporations in in in our city and making sure that people abide by our rules and policies because it's good for them it's good for the city and we're going to do all we can to make sure that we continue to be a safe place up next is uh commissioner Shay thank you hi everybody my name is Emily Shay and I'm the agong commissioner for the city of Boston I have the privilege of working on behalf of the mayor and our 130,000 older residents to make sure that Boston is a home for everyone my team and I spend a lot of time in the community listening directly to our older residents this past fall we collected over, 1500 surveys and held 22 focus groups to identify their concerns now we're hosting listening sessions in every neighborhood to ensure that our work reflects what truly matters to them creating a city where we all can not only live well today but also age well with our family our friends and our neighbors our residents have told us that this means having the right programs and services as well as the right public infrastructure streets sidewalks Parks public spaces in order to keep people active engaged and safe we have an amazing City staff who works hard every day to make sure that our sidewalks are walkable curb cuts are accessible and crosswalks help everyone get safely across the street as you've heard today this ordinance adds another important tool in our toolbox it is critical that whether you're 8 years old or 98 whether you're in a car on a bike or on foot that you can safely move around our city I look forward to working with the team here our local businesses and all of our residents to continue to make Boston a city that works for people of all ages now uh please uh welcome Meg merer Cohen president of the Back Bay Association good morning I'm Meg Meer Cohen president of the Back Bay Association and it's a real privilege to be here we look we think about the days when we would be sitting at home on the couch saying wouldn't it be great if someone could bring us our burrito and our corn chips uh little do we know how successful um an Enterprise would be that would take off and literally transform the experience that people are having in our city our sidewalks are overwhelmed our streets are overwhelmed we're we're all really overwhelmed um by the experience of trying to manage what is something that we thought was a good idea but it turns out it's one that really needed smart wise oversight and in this case some some good regulation that is going to actually maybe put the genie back in the bottle and take take more time for people to now think about not just getting the food to people's homes quickly but also how they do it who's impacted by it how they can do so in a safe manner as well I think the critical piece about without having these companies required to have insurance is really going to transform what has been a dangerous situation because there's been a lot of unfortunately not everybody and people sometimes are working very hard at these jobs but in many cases there can be fairly Reckless Behavior so we also at the back pay Association have received a lot of complaints about this we've been talking to the city about this and we're really thrilled that the city has taken this not just sort of like small effort has is not making a small effort but I think a really large transformative one so that's that's our thoughts from the Back Bay and it's my privilege to introduce our city councelor city councelor Sharon Durkin thank you so much so we're really grateful um I think a lot of us who live around here who do this work um to see a mayor who is truly taking a lot of our concerns um to have a commissioner um who is taking our concerns seriously and I know um we are all working in Partnership at the city of Boston uh to deliver for our constituents um for far too long third-party delivery platforms have operated as if rules don't apply to them their business models have prioritized speed and profit over safety and accountability leaving residents pedestrians and even their own drivers to deal with the consequences of Reckless and Lawless behavior on our street but today our mayor has offered a solution as the chair of Planning Development and transportation I cheered a hearing months ago where I publicly asked for platforms to give detailed delivery data that we know that they collect to mitigate their impacts on our streets I am really heartened to see that that is included in today's ordinance unsurprisingly these companies have offered no transparency and our request for them to self-regulate using such information has been neglected eled the administration's ordinance today Builds on that idea by requiring appropriate data reporting making it impossible for these companies to continue hiding behind vague excuses and glib indifference I'm thrilled to support mayor Woo's Common Sense ordinance and I'm excited for the city council process because Boston has no obligation to cater to multi-billion Dollar companies and Tech Giants who refuse to play by the rules of the road to those who might claim this proposal is too harsh on the delivery platforms I invite them to spend an afternoon dodging mopeds in the Fenway or watching delivery drivers play chicken with pedestrians near Wiston Street these reasonable permitting insurance and data sharing requirements are much needed step towards safer streets that we all deserve and I want to give a shout out um to my partner in service for the Back Bay um ref J Livingstone who has been an incredible leader and excited to welcome him here thank you Sharon I'm Jay Livingstone I'm the state representative for uh Back Bay in other downtown neighborhoods in Boston and I'm so pleased to be here with mayor woo uh where she's taking this important step years ago the same type of situation existed that exists now with delivery drivers with respect to tncs for people being delivered and we created a a a system of data reporting similar to what they're creating that's available at the state and city level and it's made such a difference and I look forward to this moving through the city council and I'll do what I can to move it through the state to have the same type of result uh too often um I experienced yesterday uh Somebody almost hit me on the sidewalk on Dartmouth Street when I was walking with my kids to their uh Sunday basketball games and it's incredibly dangerous with happening no one wants to stop delivery services all we want is common sense solutions to work with delivery companies to to create a s safer situation not only in the streets but in the sidewalks which I never thought I'd say about uh motorized vehicles so um I look forward to working with the mayor and I really appreciate you taking this step today thank you thank you and I neglected to say the very beginning thank you so much to our interpreters for being here and for all that you do um so let's do questions on the ordinance uh from the podium for everyone here and then if you have other topics I'll do them off to the side afterwards and everyone can go inside [Music] Nikki yeah so uh so the question was whe How enforcement of this ordinance what it will look like in are there fines or fees for the companies so um the short answer is yes uh companies are required if they want to operate a large food delivery platform in Boston large being more than a million orders a year they'll be required to get a permit uh from the city and the conditions of insurance and data sharing are part of that permit requirement uh companies that operate without a permit are subject to a uh ongoing fines related to the scale of their operations and potential uh legal action if they do not comply with the ordinance uh some of the companies have reacted already door Dash I saw they could have release one of the things that they had mentioned was they had been working with the city to try to resolve this issue I guess I sort of want to give your sense of you how have they have they participated in a a thoughtful way think they trying to do this and the other thing they claim is that of course of these ordinance in place it's just going to mean it's going to cost more for uh f to get their food so we uh appreciate the conversations that we have had to date with each one of these platforms again we started several months ago with an information request and opened a dialogue and have spoken specifically about what regulation and oversight should look like as well uh there are pieces and priorities that they shared with us that did inform how this ordinance and how this the language of the legislation has been crafted um there are certain things that I think are probably more applicable to the state as well that they're in conversations with the end at the end of the day we know um we know that this is a model that works because as the rep said and as we've all experienced the transformation the evolution of the uh ride share industry has come down a similar path where it was sort of a you know explosion of interest that led to some unintended consequences as Meg was saying and then with thoughtful oversight we are still seeing these industries Thrive we're still seeing people able to access the services and benefit from them but in a way that uh creates more safety and more order on the streets this is a daily quality of life life safety issue for our residents and that's for every generation but we especially hear it for our seniors and those who are on foot just trying to go about their daily lives and enjoy the neighborhoods that they live in uh if we were here at this location probably a couple hours later closer to lunchtime we would get a a very clear sense uh as well of just the nature of how this happens that is why we've made specific decisions here not to make this about the individual drivers not to put the entire burden of responsibility on many drivers who are just trying to earn a living and follow the rules that or the conditions that the delivery companies have put on them that they need to execute on a certain number of orders per hour that they only get a certain uh number types of incentives that really encourage them to get that order there as quickly as possible no matter what the consequences for safety in between these platforms already have the information they already should be operating with insurance protection for everyone so we're just asking them to do uh what to to do and share what is already being collected and what is already um part of the framework of how a a business operates as a good neighbor within the city of Boston what about the ab on the street as far as the police with all these [Music] viations so outside of the uh you know this ordinance um you know we will be enforcing all you know Speeders and things of that nature you know throughout the city it is something that we probably haven't done more so recently but you know certainly as the weather uh gets better uh we you will probably see a lot more enforcement in all neighborhoods uh to actually increase Public Safety uh particularly pestan safety thank thank you