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Wheels
turn as feet are beaten by fingers
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By Justin Norrie
Sydney Morning Herald, July 15, 2006
There was a time not so long ago when tattoos, cut-off shorts and
shoulder satchels appeared to rule Sydney's streets.
It was the late 1990s, the dotcom boom was in full swing and hundreds
of bicycle couriers roamed the central business district at will,
pausing for no man - or red light.
So hectored were pedestrians by wheel-borne urban cowboys that in 2002
the City of Sydney pressured bicycle courier companies to sign an
accord, in which they promised to refrain from intimidating or
endangering other road users.
Four years on, bicycle couriers have become the endangered species,
their numbers dwindling in the face of an ever-greater take-up of
high-speed internet, PDF files, digital photography and audio.
Simon McKenzie, from the Sydney Bicycle Messengers Association,
estimates that the legion of riders carving up the CBD has shrunk by
almost 75 per cent since 2000: "Back then you had more than 10 bicycle
courier companies employing close to 250 riders. Now you've got seven
businesses and about 70 riders, although the numbers fluctuate
throughout the year.
"When the Y2K scare came along, no one wanted to use their computers.
Since they got over that, our work has been in steady decline," Mr
McKenzie says.
Couriers make marginally less money an hour than they did six years
ago, he says, "but back then they could work much longer hours so the
difference is a lot bigger than you think".
In the mid-'80s, New York had more than 7000 bicycle couriers. During
the dotcom years there were 2500 and now there are barely more than
1000, says Joel Metz, who has a courier business in Portland, Oregon,
and helps run the International Federation of Bike Messenger
Associations.
Although he believes talk about the death of the bicycle courier may be
premature, Mr Metz concedes that business is on the wane: "Whether
[the] dent is due primarily to the general downturn of the economy … or
to changing methods of sending information … I'm sure either point
could be argued."
Electronic file transfers will "change what the industry moves, but in
the end, we'll adapt and rebound - perhaps not to pre-email heights,
but enough".
There will always be deliveries that can be made only in person, says
Craig Otis, a courier for more than 17 years who is now with Sydney's
Toll Fast.
"Our biggest clients would be legal firms with original documents that
need to be signed for, or investment banks or travel agencies sending
tickets - wherever you have a document that can't be reproduced there's
a need for us," he says.
Business might not be booming, but solidarity among bicycle couriers is
as strong as ever. In October Sydney will host more than 500
competitors from dozens of countries at the Cycle Messenger World
Championship.
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