by Meredith O'Brien
Boston Herald, May 13, 1998
Adam Ford thinks he and his fellow bicycle couriers get a bad rap, thatthey don't make the streets as dangerous as Boston's infamously bad automobiledrivers.
``There are good drivers and there are bad drivers,'' said Ford, a courierfor Boston's RS Express for five years.
Ford - dressed in typical courier garb with black spandex shorts, longblack T-shirt, a ponytail and a silver helmet tucked under his arm - andthe rest of the city's estimated 300 messengers were on the hot seat yesterdayat a City Council hearing on proposed stiffer regulations for bike couriers.
The hearing was punctuated by powerful testimony from Micho Spring,whose husband, William, a School Committee member, almost died when struckby a courier on a bicycle last fall.
William Spring, though not well enough to attend the hearing, submittedwritten testimony endorsing a crackdown on messengers mandating $200,000insurance per carrier, armbands, and license plates, and giving the policecommissioner the power to revoke licenses. Reckless cyclists would alsoface new fines.
``Last October 30th, I was nearly killed by a bicycle messenger whilein the crosswalk on Commonwealth Avenue in front of my home as I returnedfrom work to pick up my son to take him to basketball,'' Spring said. ``Themessenger, who was unlicensed and traveling with no lights after dark,hit me with enough force to cause very severe injuries.'''
Spring detailed how he endured facial and shoulder fractures, lacerations,lost several teeth and experienced brain hemorrhaging requiring surgery.He was in a coma for six weeks.
``My wife was told by the emergency room doctors that I looked as ifI had been hit by a car going 40 miles an hour,'' he wrote.
Dorothy Morris, who works downtown, said she was struck by a bike courierlast month and sustained a fractured skull. ``I'm still suffering the aftereffects,''Morris said, adding that the new regulations don't go far enough.
Councilor Brian J. Honan said dangerous messengers are the ones whoneed to be regulated.
``It's the guy who almost ran me down in front of the State House afew minutes ago,'' he said.
But Ford said demonizing couriers doesn't take into account the sheervolume of people who are killed by reckless automobile drivers, citingthe 2-year-old Dorchester girl killed earlier this month in front of herhome by a hit-and-run driver.
Ford said while he agrees more regulations are necessary, some of themeasures won't curb dangerous behavior.
``To think that the threat of a fine will change anybody's behavior,it won't,'' he said.
He said it's unfair to make messengers wear armbands, as opposed tosimply having a visible license plate, because other delivery people, liketruck drivers, don't have to wear something on their uniforms as identification.``Out of a sense of personal protection they (messengers) won't wear anarmband,'' Ford said.
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