WIRED covers the continuous struggle between metropolitan bicycle messengers' delivery and the information super highway.
Read the entire article here.
Bike messengers (left to right) Josh Godar, Chris Sparks and Annunaki Jonny talk with Wheels of Justice co-owner Matt Flores outside the business, on Mission Street in San Francisco.
Emily Lang/Wired.com
Here are some excerpts:
But the internet is gaining on these roadsters faster than they can pedal their fixed-gear, brakeless bikes. In a world where documents travel by e-mail and the web, and electronic signatures are legally binding, the business of moving physical wood pulp from point A to point B is struggling.
In the last two years, three messaging companies in San Francisco have folded. Courier service Bucky's of Seattle trashed its bike fleet last year. And there are nearly 1,000 fewer bike messengers in New York than a decade ago."There's a freedom associated with bike messaging," the tattooed Tanaka says. "Nobody requires me to wear a suit and tie to work. They just want to make sure you can ride a bike and know where you are going."
The dangers of the job are obvious. And then there are the lesser-known perils.
"We used to have this one run. I called it the piss run. You went around to different homes where elderly people lived, to collect their samples," he recalls. "I went to this one lady's house, threw it in my bag and, when I got back, I reached in my bag and my hands were all wet. There was piss all over my bag."
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