When commuter cyclist Benjamin Luong was hit in the bike lane last summer by a food delivery courier, he wasn’t mad, just disappointed.
Luong is a marketing professional who cycles to work downtown most days from Scarborough.
He said he doesn’t bike fast in the city core because it’s not safe. On a typical ride, he said he encounters many food couriers who appear distracted, staring at their phones while biking.
One evening last July, Luong said he was cycling home east in the Adelaide Street bike lane. He rang his bell to alert a courier up ahead that he was looking to pass but the delivery worker wasn’t paying attention, Luong told TorontoToday.
As Luong came up beside him, the courier moved to the left, clipping Luong’s handlebars and sending him off his bike and onto the sidewalk.
Though the Scarborough resident managed to escape the collision with only a scrape on his hands, others haven’t been so lucky.
Lawyer acting for two cyclists injured in collisions with couriers
Toronto personal injury lawyer David Shellnutt said he’s currently acting as legal representation for two cyclists who suffered broken bones in accidents involving delivery couriers in 2023 and 2024.
Shellnutt said he could not provide specifics about the cases but alleged both incidents were caused by food delivery couriers cycling either while distracted or in another unsafe way.
He said while the number of courier-on-cyclist incidents pales in comparison to the rate of cyclists injured in collisions with cars, such accidents have increased.
Jennifer Scott, president of the couriers’ union Gig Workers’ United, said companies’ are pushing riders to make unsafe decisions by incentivizing delivery speed and distracted cycling. This risky biking behaviour sometimes results in injuries to workers, she said.
On Monday afternoon on Bloor Street, Gourav, an Uber Eats courier, told TorontoToday his nose was broken several months ago in a collision with a DoorDash courier who ran a red light.
Another longtime bike courier, Narada Kiondo, said the problem of distracted cycling among his peers is not the result of workers’ simply being jerks.
“The apps themselves reward the erraticness,” he said. “If you don’t make erratic choices [while biking], you’re not going to make any money.”
Kiondo alleged Uber’s algorithm in particular incentivizes couriers to constantly look down at their phones — and not just for purposes of navigation.
In order to make money, couriers need to be selected to deliver orders to customers. But order offers from the company, sent to courier’s smart phones, typically disappear within about 15 to 25 seconds of first appearing, according to three couriers who spoke with TorontoToday.
While Gourav and a second courier agreed this is a fair amount of time, Kiondo said it motivates riders to frequently look at their phones, rather than staring at the road.
In emailed statements, spokespeople for Uber and DoorDash denied the companies incentivize unsafe transit. The reps stressed that safety is a top priority for both companies.
“DoorDash does not incentivize Dashers to fulfill offers faster than appropriate, nor do Dashers receive any rewards for doing so,” a company spokesperson said.
TorontoToday contacted Skip the Dishes, another prominent food delivery company in the city, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Uber, DoorDash and Skip the Dishes did not provide data on the number of injuries their bike couriers in Toronto have suffered or caused.
Why are food delivery couriers ‘distracted’?
As well as the need to quickly accept mobile delivery offers, Kiondo said Uber Eats commonly sends couriers order offers while they are en route with a delivery, unlike other apps.
Uber said the chance to stack orders by accepting a new order while still on the go with another can help couriers make more money.
But Kiondo said it creates another reason for workers to look at their phones, rather than the road.
An Uber spokesperson did not respond to Kiondo’s concerns about app-related distractions, saying instead that the company is “committed to the safety of all road users” and works continuously to “raise the bar” on safety.
The spokesperson said the company has developed several safety features, including allowing couriers to message customers and have trip notifications dictated to prevent the need to look at a phone screen while travelling.
The company also tries to ensure that every app interaction can be completed in a single tap or swipe, according to the spokesperson.
Courier Anisur Rahman told TorontoToday this feature is helpful, as other companies often require couriers to manually type out a customer’s address for navigation, while Uber does not.
Does a need for speed increase risk?
Scott of Gig Workers’ United alleged couriers are also incentivized to bike faster than is safe because of the threat of deactivation from the platforms.
Just weeks after she first began working as a food delivery courier in 2017, she said she received a notification from DoorDash informing her she’d been delivering too slowly.
Scott said the notification made her feel anxious for months. At the time, food delivery was her only source of income and she’d already invested money in purchasing a bike, she said.
“It made me feel like I had to … bike faster than I was able to,” Scott said.
She added that she didn’t know what qualified as “too slow” because the app “didn’t tell us that.”
Scott alleged if workers are cycling too slowly, companies will often send several warning emails or notifications before “deactivating” them from the platform.
Gourav, a newcomer to Canada, said he’s also received warning notifications from Uber Eats about his speed. He described the notifcation as “a bit stressful” and felt it encouraged him to cycle faster.
On Monday, TorontoToday spotted the courier biking through an intersection on Bloor Street before the light had turned green — an approach common among many Toronto cyclists, couriers or otherwise.
Though he did not have an active order at the time, Gourav said he sometimes feels pressure to bike fast to receive better ratings from restaurants and customers, which increases the likelihood of getting future order offers.
When asked about deactivations, a DoorDash spokesperson said the company “will only notify a Dasher after a delivery is completed if they are extremely late.” This system is based on “reasonable and safe estimates for how long each delivery should take,” the company said.
The DoorDash spokesperson said the company does not tell couriers to speed up, adding that reckless behaviour violates the company’s policies.
“Dashers do not compete with each other on speed, nor do Dashers receive any rewards for ‘beating the clock,’” the spokesperson said.
Neither Uber nor Skip the Dishes responded to deactivation claims.
The role of bike lanes and e-bikes
Shellnutt agreed with the couriers’ that the companies’ business models are encouraging risky behaviour. He said Toronto’s bike lane design and the increased use of e-bikes are also creating challenges.
The lawyer said both of the incidents where his cyclist clients were injured in encounters with couriers occurred at or near bike lanes, which are increasingly crowded with e-bikes.
In 2022, a one-day cycling study conducted by the City of Toronto found that 10 per cent of all bike trips were completed by food delivery couriers. Of these workers, 43 per cent were riding an e-bike.
Shellnutt said the number of e-bikes in Toronto has increased dramatically over the past few years, and that these bikes tend to be larger, faster and heavier than their manual peers.
“If you’ve designed a bike lane for a slower moving, lighter, smaller vehicle, and then you try and cram larger ones into it, there are going to be problems,” he said.
Shellnut said better bike lane infrastructure could go a long way toward improving safety — an idea which was echoed by some couriers who said streets with bike lanes feel far safer than those without.
What are the possible solutions?
Scott said her top safety solution is for food delivery companies to accept the classification of workers as employees, rather than self-employed contractors.
By not doing so, the companies are incentivized to allow as many couriers on the road as possible, increasing competition between them and pushing wages down, she said.
“When an employer has to pay the workers a minimum wage for the time that they’re at work, they’re not going to saturate the workforce,” said Scott.
Rahman told TorontoToday he is making decent money with Uber, but Gourav said his earnings have been disappointing. The international student said he’s had to work long shifts — up to ten hours at a time — to string together enough orders to make much money.
Neither Uber nor Skip the Dishes responded to claims the companies’ have saturated the workforce to lower wages for workers.
A spokesperson for DoorDash denied the allegation and said “Dasher waitlists” are implemented to balance supply and demand among couriers.
Kiondo said increased worker protections such as a minimum wage for gig workers would be a significant help for couriers, noting a policy of this kind was passed in British Columbia last summer.
In the western province, couriers are now entitled to a minimum wage of $20.88 per hour while delivering orders.
Just ‘disappointed’
Though Luong wasn’t significantly injured in the collision with the courier last summer, he said the incident left him shaken.
Luong said he didn’t confront the courier but as he was picking himself up, the man came over. Though the courier’s English wasn’t good, Luong said it was clear he was remorseful.
More than anything, Luong said the incident left him "disappointed."
He told TorontoToday that gig workers are just trying to make ends meet and that the working conditions they face are difficult.
Luong said he wants food delivery companies to understand their decisions have potential to harm not just their workers, but those around them, too.
