Bike messenger

Bike messengers have carried packages by bicycle for more than a century, but it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that bike messengers became cultural icons. With its combination of high risk and low payoff, bike messengering is the quintessential youth culture job. The urban antihero overtones and sleek fashions (such as Lycra shorts and rugged shoulder satchels) are emblematic of bike messenger sub-culture.

Commission-based compensation encourages risk taking among messengers, who are encumbered by lack of medical benefits and job security. Not until 1994 did the Teamsters Union launch a campaign to organize messengers. In the '90s fax machiness and modems began to cut into the bike messenger business. In the mid-1980s, Manhattan, New York had 7,000 bike messengers to navigate its crowded streets; by 1994, that number had shrunk to 2,000. Average earnings reportedly fell from $600 to $300 a week.

MTV's hit series The Real World: San Francisco was characterized by the presence of what some described as repulsive yet compelling bike messenger Puck.

External link

• The New York Bike Messenger Association