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*[http://cmwc.sydbma.org/ cmwc.sydbma.org] - The 14th Annual Cycle Messenger World Championships in [[Sydney]]
*[http://cmwc.sydbma.org/ cmwc.sydbma.org] - The 14th Annual Cycle Messenger World Championships in [[Sydney]]
*[http://ecmc2006.com/ ecmc2006.com] - The 11th European Cycle Messenger Championships in [[Helsinki]]
*[http://ecmc2006.com/ ecmc2006.com] - The 11th European Cycle Messenger Championships in [[Helsinki]]
** [http://www.bikesthatfold.com/ BikesThatfold.com] is a resource for '''Folding Bikes'''


===Messenger associations===
===Messenger associations===

Revision as of 11:01, 16 March 2007

Bicycle messenger in Atlanta doing a track stand.

Bicycle messengers (also known as bike couriers) are people who work carrying and delivering items by bicycle. Bicycle messengers are most often found in the central business districts of metropolitan areas. Businesses and individuals use bike messengers to send items quickly within a city, where bikes can often travel faster than automobiles by maneuvering through city traffic.

Modern technology–such as encrypted email, and electronic documentation (ex. e-ticketing)–has reduced the demand for the services of bicycle messengers, but not nearly as much as some predicted. Notably, there were expectations in the 1980s that the fax machine would spell the end of the bicycle messenger business, but the industry remained strong[1]. Some portion of the continued demand is a result of need to send items which can not be sent by digital means (such as corporate gifts and original artwork), but a much larger part is made up of legal documents, cheques and sensitive information. This demand can be seen as a result of continued distrust of digital cryptography[2]. Also common is for bicycle messengers to deliver digital content across the city on optical media or hard disks as the speed at which data can be transferred by that method often greatly exceeds feasible Internet transfer rates[3]. Furthermore, in some instances bicycle messengers are used purely for the air of importance the delivery method lends to a package.

The laws regarding the employment of bicycle messengers varies from country to country. In some places messengers are independent contractors paid on commission and do not receive benefits such as health insurance, despite a high risk for on-the-job injury. In other places they will be regular employees of the courier company enjoying all the benefits thereof. Still, it is very common for the job to carry a low degree of compensation relative to the risk and effort required. Yet, there is rarely a shortage of willing couriers, due largely to the freedom offered by the job and to its continual romanticization[4].

History

File:Wubikecourier.jpg
Western Union bicycle courier, 1912

Almost immediately after Pierre Lallement developed the forerunner of the modern pedal-driven velocipede in 1864, people began to use the bicycle for delivery purposes. David Herlihy's 2005 book on the early history of the bicycle contains several references to bicycle messengers working during the late 19th century, including a description of couriers employed by the Paris stock exchange in the 1870's[5]. During the bicycle boom of the 1890's in the United States, Western Union employed a number of bicycle messengers in New York City and other large population centers. In a curious foreshadowing of contemporary Western messenger culture, these couriers generally rode bicycles equipped with a single fixed gear.

Equipment

A fixed-gear bicycle

The most essential piece of equiment is a bicycle. Messengers can be found using all different forms of bicycles, including road bikes, hybrids, mountain bikes, and even BMX bicycles. Fixed-gear bicycles are preferred by many for their light weight, responsive handling, and mechanical simplicity which reduces maintenance. Although not ridden by a majority of messengers, the fixed-gear bicycle is often portrayed as a totemic symbol for bike messengering and urban aesthetics.

A bag is also generally a requisite piece of equipment. Bags with a single strap that wraps diagonally across the wearer's chest, which have become popularly known as messenger bags, are popular among messengers because they can be swung around the messenger's body to allow access to the compartment without removing the bag. Bags made specifically for professional messengers also feature clasps which can be adjusted with one hand (ideal for riding), clips or pockets on the strap for holding a cell phone or two-way radio, and deceivingly large capacities (up to 50 liters or 3,000 cubic inches, large enough to hold a box of ten reams of paper). Similarly specialized two-strap backpacks are also available for messengers, which must be at least partially removed to access the storage compartments, but distribute the weight of the bag across both shoulders. Baskets and racks, mounted on the front or rear of a bike, can also provide carrying space, and at least one messenger service (in New York City) equips its riders with specialized three-wheel cycles, which have a large trunk in the rear for carrying items, in lieu of bags.

Messengers communicate and are dispatched to assignments via handeld communication devices including two-way radios, cell phones, and BlackBerrys.

Finally, as their living is dependent upon their bicycle, most messengers carry a lock to secure their bike during deliveries. Simple chain and padlock systems are used by many messengers, who wear the locked chain around their waist like a belt while riding. U-locks (also known as D-locks) are also popular as they are sturdy locks which can double as a weapon against aggressive drivers. For further security, some messengers are known to paint their bikes ugly, clashing colors to make them less attractive to potential thieves.

Culture and media

Many messengers see their occupation as a sport as well as a job. Bicycle messengers in most cities hold fairly regular urban cycle races known as "alleycats". These races are held informally - without a permit and spread mostly by word of mouth - on open roads and in heavy traffic, to simulate the messenger's working conditions. In addition to these regional events, the Cycle Messenger Championships take place at North American, European and world levels. These events are held as much for fun and messenger networking as they are for competition. In recent years some particularly skilled messengers have taken an interest in racing track bicycles in velodromes, where they can shed their heavy bags and test their strength and bike-handling skills.

Messengers have been used in fiction media as symbols of urban living, and have been the subject of novels, memoirs, feature films, television series, songs, operas, and anthropological studies. News media have made portrayals of messengers ranging from innocuous urban libertines to reckless, cliquish nihilists. The latter portrayal is often sparked by local incidents involving bike messengers in accidents with cars or run-ins with authority figures. These incidents also occasionally lead to proposals for, and dispute over, new ordinances and regulations on messengers and messengering.[6] [7]

The influence of bicycle messengers can be seen in urban fashion, most notably the popularity of single-strap messenger bags, which are a common accessory even among people who do not ride professionally nor for pleasure.

Messengers worldwide

The Swiss cycle messenger championships under way in 2004.

Although the idea of modern bicycle messengers is thought to have originated in North America, it has now spread throughout the developed world. The attraction of this service is that it provides a cheap and fast method of sending messages around an inner-city area with heavy traffic. The bicycle messenger is most common outside America in northern and eastern Europe, with large and organised bodies of couriers in such cities as London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Zurich, Warsaw, Budapest and Dublin, among others. In London motorcycle couriers are as common as bicycle couriers for historical reasons and most couriers services provide both motorbike and bicycle couriers.

An annual European Cycle Messenger Championships (ECMC) is organized in a different city on the continent every year. Strangely, the concept has not become especially popular in southern Europe, the heartland of world competitive cycling. There are very few bicycle couriers in Portugal, France, Spain, or Italy.

Outside Europe, there are large bicycle messenger scenes in Japan—notably Tokyo—and also in New Zealand and Australia. Bicycle messengers are also very popular throughout Africa and Asia where the bicycle is a more affordable mode of transportation. Many Latin American countries also use bike messengers in cities with heavy traffic congestion. Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada created a popular icon of a marijuana-smoking bicycle courier everyman in his 19th century engravings.

References

  1. ^ http://twocitiestwowheels.blogspot.com/2006/07/economist-and-bike-messengers.html
  2. ^ http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/lynch.html
  3. ^ http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54739,00.html
  4. ^ http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00645.x?cookieSet=1
  5. ^ Herlihy, David V., Bicycle: The History Yale University press
  6. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990908messenger1.asp
  7. ^ http://www.messmedia.org/messville/BOST_LAW.HTM

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bicycle messengers.

Messenger associations

Miscellaneous sites

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