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Bike Messengers: Life in the Tight Lane
New York Times, September 4, 1987
For Pierre Jacob, the hum of traffic brings opportunity. The shadow of a
pedestrian often means trouble. And the click of a car door opening in front
of him can mean death.
Mr. Jacob, who works for Cycle Service Messengers, is one of the estimated
5,000 bicycle messengers in New York City who wind through the maze of vehicles
and pedestrians and who would be affected by a proposed weekday ban on bicycles
on three major avenues in midtown Manhattan.
On Monday, a state appeals court judge halted the experimental ban for at
least a week, until a ruling is issued on a lawsuit brought by bicyclists
and messenger service companies who oppose the ban.
Mr. Jacob, who is 26 years old and has been a bicycle messenger for three
and a half years, supports the lawsuit. He says the ban - which would apply
to Park, Madison and Fifth Avenues between 31st and 59th Streets from 10
A.M. to 4 P.M. on weekdays -would force him to make detours that would cost
him time and money.
"It's like telling Federal Express to use boats instead of planes,"
he remarked. But he added that if the ban is approved, "What most of us are
going to do is do it their way and see if it works."
One morning this week, Mr. Jacob was heading uptown from Cycle Service's
dispatching center at 47 Wooster Street in SoHo.
Between King and Prince Streets on the Avenue of the Americas, a one-way
street northbound, a man wearing a business suit pedaled a bike against the
traffic, his tie flapping over his shoulder.
"They do everything that we messengers do," Mr. Jacob said, nodding his head
toward the man. "And some of them are just as lethal and reckless."
As Mr. Jacob approached midtown, the traffic became heavier. Instead of riding
in the bike lane, on the left side of the street, he wove through the traffic
into a middle lane, steering on the white line between the cars and buses.
To avoid a mirror jutting out from a stopped truck, he quickly lowered his
left shoulder.
"We can't ride in the bicycle lane when we want to go quickly because It's
not possible to go with the speed of traffic." he said.
"The bike lane is just too dangerous because someone could be pulling out,"
he said. "Like that," he added, motioning to a white truck pulling out into
the bike lane from a parking spot.
"When you see a lot of messengers swerving and ducking, it's got nothing
to do with being fancy or showing off," Mr. Jacob said. "It's actually safety.
It's something you have to do."
Messengers are required by city ordinance to carry identification of the
name of the company for which they work. Mr. Jacob wears a bright yellow
T-shirt with "Cycle Service Center" printed on the back. He also wears tight
black racing shorts, white socks and cycling shoes. A faded yellow canvas
bag hangs over his left shoulder.
Mr. Jacob, who lives in Brooklyn, said he likes his job because he is outside
the whole day, keeps in shape, sets his own hours and earns more than he
would doing other work.
Like most bicycle messengers, Mr. Jacob is an independent contractor. Messengers
work on commission - usually 50 percent - so the money he makes depends on
how long he works and how fast he Is. A regular delivery by Cycle Service
costs $7; a rush delivery, in an hour or less, costs $20.
During a good week in the summer, Mr. Jacob may make $400, more than most
bicycle messengers, he said. When the weather turns cold or rainy, people
call messengers instead of doing the job themselves, and Mr. Jacob may earn
as much as $600 a week.
One of Mr. Jacob's first morning stops was the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company
on Fifth Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets. The envelope he picked up
had to be delivered to Bankers Trust Company, on Park Avenue between 48th
and 49th Streets. If the bicycle ban were being enforced. Mr. Jacob would
have had to ride to Lexington Avenue, three avenues away. Instead, he rode
uptown on Madison Avenue and cut over on 48th Street to Park Avenue.
After making the delivery, Mr. Jacob returned to his bike, quickly unlocked
it and pedaled off to his next pickup. Usually, he said, he calls dispatchers
at Cycle Service about 10 times an hour to get work. He makes about eight
deliveries in an hour.
In his three years as a messenger. Mr. Jacob has been in several accidents,
including one in which he bounced off a bus and slid under the wheels of
a truck as it was moving.
"When I opened my eyes, I thought I was a dead person," he said.
But he escaped with only scratches on his back.
Despite such close calls, he said, he will not leave the messenger business
soon.
"I don't think about the danger," he said, grinning. "It's best to have a
positive attitude."
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