A Crash Course in Two-Wheeled Survival

It was a rainy Monday night in Manhattan and just my third day on the job as a bike courier. It was hard to tell if the water hitting me in the face was coming from the sky or the street. The lights reflected off the shiny city streets and wet car windows with dizzying effects. I squinted, trying to figure out if objects were coming toward me or moving away, or moving at all.

I rode down 14th Street, moving quickly, but riding with traffic and abiding by traffic laws. I was approaching an intersection where I had a green light when a dark shape suddenly emerged from behind a parked car and into my path. It was another cyclist.

An interesting story - read the rest of it at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/jobs/a-crash-course-in-two-wheele...

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Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on April 12, 2015 at 6:42am

Interesting article. When I worked in the Loop in the 80s and early 90s, bike messengers seemed to swarm everywhere. Then, with the advent of email and PDF files, they seemed to sharply diminish in number. But reading this article and talking to a messenger the other day, it seems that they are enjoying a resurgence. Unlike the old days, they do a lot more than carry documents around. Food seems to be huge now, with lots of messengers rather ingeniously finding ways to increase the cargo capacity of their bikes. As long as we all ride safe, it's a good thing to see.