Cantabrigians will get their say on micromobility after a state commission issues report in January

The lack of public outreach around pending state laws for e-bikes and scooters came in for criticism from Cambridge city councillors at their Monday meeting, with city staff assuring that people will get their chance to weigh in.

Elected officials are “hearing every day practically about some e-bike or an e-scooter or how this person cannot get around the city,” said councillor Patty Nolan, author of a Sept. 8 order drawing Monday’s city response. 

Officials and staff agree it is confusing what control the city has on the devices, which range  from skateboards to wheelchairs, and where city laws may come into play, especially when some of the devices aren’t even acknowledged by state law as existing.

The state’s new Special Commission on Micromobility met five times starting in April and held its final official meeting Monday. It expects to issue a report in January, said transportation commissioner Brooke McKenna in briefing councillors and responding to Nolans’s order. “It would be at that point that we would probably want to have a committee hearing, if that was the will of the council, and start to get the word out on what the recommendations were,” McKenna said.

The Transportation Committee is run by councillor Cathie Zusy, who won reelection Tuesday. But it’s not certain the next mayor will keep her in that role. 

Zusy said she met with McKenna a month ago to consider a hearing and opted to hold off until after the commission released its report.

Though the city sent recommendations and an extensive list of questions to the commission, Nolan believed her order was intended to spark public comment at the start of that process. “All of us wanted it on the table before the recommendations came out,” Nolan said Monday. “The intent was that we let the community know that now is the time to actually send your comments into the micromobility commission before they have their final meeting.”

The order left room for interpretation, Nolan acknowledged: Its text asked staff to “inform the community of the work of” the commission and when the recommendations coming from the state commission will be available.

The state commission’s meetings didn’t have public comment periods, McKenna said.

With the state in control and no guarantee that Cambridge’s recommendations would be taken up quickly or at all, the city may yet have to run some process of its own, McKenna said. “Across the board, every user group wants more clarity on these issues,” she said.

That answer didn’t satisfy councillor Ayesha Wilson, who said she was unaware of the work of the state commission until McKenna’s report and suggested Cambridge could have done something to make up for “the state’s shortcoming with their process.”

The state commission’s tasks are to update and clarify state laws about micromobility devices while finding ways to expand their use, reducing short car trips and improving first- and last-mile connections to transit. The work is part of statewide goals to cut emissions, improve mobility and strengthen the economy.

Residents who spoke at the meeting, though, said they wanted fewer micromobility devices on public paths and are frustrated with how people use e-bikes and scooters: “willy-nilly all over the place,” resident James Williamson said. “It’s just crazy, it’s scary, it’s dangerous.”

Scooters and e-bike riders often zip through crowded areas and many, especially delivery workers for DoorDash and Uber Eats, don’t follow traffic rules or keep safe speeds, Williamson said. Fellow commenter Heather Hoffman mentioned micromobility devices “going at high speed the wrong way down the bike lanes.”

Both called the issue urgent.

Feature image by pony via Unsplash.

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