Original title: “An explosion of electric vehicles are overtaking the bike lanes”

It’s a tangled issue and I admit I don’t know quite what should be done. I set out to write a rant against e-bikes and e-scooters and the whole pack of weird machines invading the bike lanes and (far too often) invading our already-crowded sidewalks.

But as soon as you start thinking through the problems it’s obvious that the solutions aren’t obvious at all. Which is why cities like Toronto keep kicking the issue down the road.

To start with, it would be a shame to crack down on those hard-working food couriers. All of a sudden, it seems, they’re everywhere, especially late in the day when people start ordering their burgers and such.

But as the Star’s Ben Mussett has reported, they’re just scraping by under very difficult conditions, working on the margins of the gig economy. Let’s not scapegoat these poor folks, of all people.

The bigger issue is so-called micromobility — offering people more eco-friendly ways of getting around, especially in the “last mile” between transit stations and home or office. An e-scooter may be a nuisance or even a threat to me, but it could be an ideal way for someone to get around the neighbourhood without resorting to a car.