Rad article on NYC delivery workers

[Eric Marth]

A long piece on the insanely hard-working bicycle delivery people in NYC. Terrible wages, robberies, stabbings, lack of worker protections. They all ride electric Arrow bikes but you don't have to tell your friction shifters. Great read and excellent photos by Philip Montgomery. 

https://www.curbed.com/article/nyc-delivery-workers.html

[WilletM]

Thanks for sharing the link!  I've been absolutely mesmerized watching the bike messenger gathering spots on Market St during visits to SF over the last twenty years.  Between the bikes and the bags and the tattoos and the clothing, there is a very humbling lesson for me that THEY are the real deal and that I am the poser/gaper who tries to furtively steal a glance as I walk past.

On the bright side, the whole messenger/courier subculture did motivate me to begin collecting messenger bags and packs 15 or 20 years ago, and I do combine that love for messenger gear with my all-things-bicycle infatuation and it makes for a great way to chill and enjoy after a hard day of work in the real world.

Willet M.

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Completely captivating. Just wow. I was horrified and ensconced. Great photos. REAL bike life. I wish there was more that could be done for those NY delivery workers. The thieves were extraordinarily brazen - you usually expect them to give up when confronted - but some of them became murderers when challenged. I wasn’t expecting that. Thanks for that article, Eric. Really enjoyed learning about the NY delivery workers. 

[Philip Barrett]

In the 80's I worked as a motorcycle delivery courier (despatch rider in the UK parlance) - brutal & dangerous work but on a bike you can at least out run traffic. I can't imagine doing this on a bicycle, electric or otherwise.

[John A. Bennett]

I haven't watched this recently, so I can't remember if there is anything that's not G-Rated,

language-wise, but it's a great "slice of life" from of bygone era. SF locals will recognize a

young Erik Zo, the messenger bag guy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EmbaZYRn8

[Patrick Moore]

The NY magazine is very interesting, thanks for posting the link.

The bike messengers remind me of Washington DC in the 1980s.

But they've been doing this in India for generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

The politically incorrect term -- I gather from the Wikipedia entry -- is what I knew them as: tiffin wallahs. A hugely complex, very large-scale, multi-modal transportation  out and back operations, from thousands of individual homes to thousands of offices and back again, dailly, with each operator collecting dozens each of the tiffin boxes delivering them practically error free despite the operators' generall illiteracy. The first and last mile -- at least -- were by bicycle. Apparently you don't need to be literate to run or be a part of huge, successful organizations -- well, of course not!

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Patrick Moore]

And without the tyranny of the sweet technologies that were supposed to bring us into  the post-modern promised land. (Expletive deleted.)

The tiffin wallahs are, if not an entire sub-caste, certainly the equivalent of a national professional guild; their situation, wholly sans IT and such unecessaries as writing, is professional and cooperative and --- "sustainable."

[Doug H.]

Who are these roving hoards of thieves? Why aren't they arrested and prosecuted? I have no tolerance for crime especially against a vulnerable population such as these immigrants who are trying hard to make a living. 

Doug

[Eric Marth]

Doug — Per the article, when called the police offer little help. When stolen bikes are reported the police do not follow up. The police do not seem to recognize the cost of the bikes ($2,000 -- $3,000) or, more importantly, the importance of the bikes to the delivery people as a way to make a living. 

The group in the story has been able to help one another retrieve bikes and get some shred of justice through organizing themselves! There are a few successes in the story where the group have used social media to congregate in large numbers to confront or chase down bike thieves. But these are very dangerous situations often with intense, insane and aggressive responses from thieves when confronted. 

While there are surveillance cameras on the bridge they are pointed at parked cars rather than pedestrian and bike thoroughfares. (The group has approached the Dept. of Transportation to have the cameras reoriented). And the area is seriously lacking in artificial light and very dark at night. Because there is inadequate infrastructure for safety and city agencies aren't offering much help (police dept. and dept. of transportation) the group have implemented a system to traverse the sketchy Willis Avenue Bridge in groups of no less than four. 

[Eric Marth]

A related article from the New Yorker: A Search for the Delivery Worker in a Viral Hurricane Ida Video