A discussion overheard between two veterans:
“The first time I ended up in the hospital, it was bad. Broken nose, two broken ribs, and bruises all over. I was sore for weeks.”
“I’ve been there. Hey, you remember Miguel? He got blindsided. He wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t make it.”
Returnees from the war in Iraq? Heavyweight boxers? NFL Football players, maybe? Guess again. How about bike messengers? Believe it or not, that bike messenger who delivered your package today in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, or any other large city risked serious injury – even death - to get it to you.
Everyone has an image of a bike messenger. They’ve been portrayed numerous times in movies and TV, and every once in a while by someone well known, like Kevin Bacon in the movie ‘Quicksilver’, or the world’s 'hottest' bike courier – Jessica Alba in the ‘Dark Angel’ television series. Just my opinion, of course ... but I digress …
Anyone who lives and works in a large metropolis knows that you have to have the guts of a diamond thief to speed through big city traffic with little more than a helmet and a ten speed to protect you from cars, trucks and buses. Then try doing it while hauling oddly shaped packages and a security chain weighing as much as your average boat anchor. Professional bike messenger do their jobs knowing fully that over the course of their career, they are likely to take more physical beatings than the Jets laid on Tom Brady in this year’s divisional playoff game.
Of all bike messengers throughout the country, the ones making a living in New York City have to be the craziest. I bet you’d be amazed to learn that between 1996 and 2003, roughly 500 NYC cyclists a year were injured in crashes with motor vehicles - and that 225 bicyclists died in those crashes over that period. Many among those numbers were bike couriers. Thankfully, those figures have been declining steadily over the past few years. Major cities have taken great strides to curtail bike related deaths. In New York, Mayor Bloomberg’s drive to turn Manhattan into another Amsterdam – without the charm, or freely available drugs and brothels, that is – has led to the creation of the more bike lanes, and a tremendously positive effect on cyclist safety.
At Select Express, our biker safety program includes providing our biker couriers with helmets, and mandating that they wear them. We also make our bikers aware of the laws pertaining to them, and we insist that they adhere to them. But even with all that, the risk for these couriers is great.
So, the next time you sign for that delivery, you may appreciate the person who got it to you just a little bit more.
