Maybe — just maybe — the MPD will use this opportunity to enforce an ‘Operation Ride Right’ that lasts.
E-bikes, scooters, mopeds — small two-wheeled vehicles that have ruled the D.C. streets for the last few years, thanks to subsidies from the city — are no longer buzzing around like they used to now that federal forces are patrolling the streets. (According to a 2024 piece by the Washington Post, many of the drivers are undocumented immigrants.)
Before this month, on a stroll through my neighborhood, you wouldn’t be able to walk a block without encountering a moped mob. The drivers could usually be seen congregating on street corners, in front of take-out restaurants, collecting warm, Styrofoam packages for DoorDash or UberEats orders.
As a curmudgeon, I have to say I’m skeptical of the civic value of food delivery on-demand — nothing screams late-stage capitalist decadence like paying for the delivery of a burrito bowl that’s a ten-minute walk away. The rise in the use of food-delivery apps has also contributed to the hollowing out of local restaurants. Rather than operate as physical gathering spaces that enable guests to come together for meals, more and more restaurants have had to cater to digital patrons or close.
According to a recent survey from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, two out of five “full-service restaurants” in D.C. are “likely” to close this year. One major reason cited is a nearly 50 percent drop in foot traffic. Many profitable “restaurants” in D.C. don’t even have a storefront — they’re simply kitchens for DoorDash users.
And this is to say nothing of the general chaos the motorized bikes have wrought on the city.
Nearly every D.C. pedestrian has had to leap out of the way of motorized bikes and scooters cruising down sidewalks and speeding through crosswalks. It’s no better behind the wheel. Driving a car in the capital is like driving through a video game — mopeds weave in and out of traffic, disobey most traffic signals, and merge freely between sidewalks, the bike lane, and the road.
Last summer, the Metropolitan Police Department launched “Operation Ride Right,” which impounded 273 scooters and arrested 81 individuals for the illegal use of mopeds and scooters. The operation, however, barely put a dent in the activities of moped riders across the city — they were back on the streets as usual in no time.
While some locals have lamented the noticeable decrease of e-bike delivery guys and the correlative increase in food-delivery wait time, others have welcomed the newfound peace on the streets.
D.C.’s Nextdoor — a forum for residents to ask for plumber recommendations, sell used goods, and discuss local events — offers other views of the moped army.
A user named Jessica in Navy Yard posted, “I was ran down by two male teens on the motorized bicycles in front of my building earlier this evening. I was crossing the crosswalk carefully and they came out of nowhere going against traffic and bike lanes and unfortunately I now am in the hospital for a broken ankle and multiple areas of my arms and legs with open bloody contusions.”
According to a user named Caren who lives near Union Station, “There is almost no apparent law covering the use of [motorized] bicycles. They wheel on and off sidewalks with impunity, run stop signs and stop lights and give nasty hand signals when passing driver’s on the right just as the driver is using a turn signal at a coming right turn.”
Tom, a user who lives in the SW Waterfront neighborhood, wrote: “The deliberate flouting of the rules of the road and associated defiant behavior is at epidemic levels with the bikes, scooters and their various permutations. It’s not too much to ask for pedestrians to be safe on the sidewalks and in the crosswalks.”
According to Joyce, who resides in the Northeast, “I have witnessed EVERY DAY the food delivery bikes travelling down sidewalks just to deliver food to people putting in an order — an initiative that Mayor Bowser supported (along with DDOT and DoorDash, etc.) where subsized [sic] e-bikes were provided to motorists/bikers that want to participate in the program. Granted, these people deserve to make a living, but they ARE NOT BOUND BY DC traffic laws — they run you down on sidewalks, they run through red lights, they squeeze between your car and cars parked, knocking off your sideview mirrors, etc., etc. and Lord help you if you think a ticket can be issued, damage can be paid for, including hospital bills, etc.!”
Albert, a Spanish speaker in Columbia Heights, wrote “Deadly two wheel machines and their rental companies getting away with murder on DC’s dangerous injury-prone, Wild-Wild West sideWALKS and streets. No camera-identifying license plate, no rules-of the-road education, and an inability to sue both culpable DC Governmental agencies and their rental agency accomplices who are raking in millions of dollars of tax-payer’s and motor vehicle-ticketing agencies.”
I’ve gotta say, I’m with my neighbors on this one. Maybe — just maybe — the MPD will use this opportunity to enforce an “Operation Ride Right” that lasts.