phoenix, az

[teeth]

hey
i am moving from the northeast to phoenix next month.
why are there no bike courier services there?
what is the bike theft threat level?

etc etc etc

[jnvw]

Nice, Welcome to the valley of the sun.
There are no Courier services here, simply because it's easier to drive 80+MPH down any valley freeway to get to your proper destination.

Another reason is you will have to dodge: Bullets, Illegal Immigrants, idiots, meth users, gang members, etc......

The overall bike theft 'threat level' is normal. Unless you have your bike tethered to you at all times, you’re at risk. I have a Pit Bull that I feed only 1 time per week and beat it with my frame pump when I feel it is being a ‘wimp’ I tie the Pit to my bike while I am at work, so I never have problems with theft.

Other then that, it's great here!

JK:)

[Greenblazer]

Hello,

Welcome. The reason there are no bicycle messenger services is that Phoenix is spread out over a whole lot of real estate. The Phoenix Metropolitan area covers 9000 square miles. Out here they build out instead of up. My commute is 25 miles one way, and it's likely that others could have a much longer commute. It would be hard to make much money if you could make 2 or 3 deliveries in a day.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

[Phil72]

The bike theft threat level is greater in some areas than others. It depends upon where in the Phoenix Metro Area you are moving to. In my experience, bike theft danger is much higher in Tempe and Mesa, where a ring (or rings) of bike theives are intelligent and active and will track cyclists in their riding patterns and attepmt to steal bikes from a workplace or school (esp. around the ASU campus, where so many students leave easy pickings for them). I never lock my bike up in those cities - I just walk or bus. I haven't heard of as much bike theft happening in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, probably because it takes a ton of money to live in those areas and the police are more likely to (somewhat) respond to bike theft.

There are many cities in the Phoenix metro area, and it is really big, so I can't comment on every city in the area. I do know Tempe and Mesa have a lot of bike theives, and I have also found Scottsdale and Paradise Valley to be fairly low-theft areas in comparison. I would speculate that places like Apache Junction and south Phoenix are places to not leave your bike unattended (even if locked), and places like Glendale and Peoria may be relatively safer; however this is just speculation regarding these cities. I only ride through these areas, I never even stop.

I think the other posters on this thread have pretty much addressed the bike messenger thing - PHX is really spread out - and also, the danger of heat exhaustion/stroke is very high in the summer for that style of riding, even if you're the fastest, toughest bike messenger ever. 115 degree heat is the great equalizer, and most road cyclists do their summer riding before dawn arounfd here.

Hope this all helps. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE riding here; there are a lot of bike lanes and my experiences with drivers have so far been better than many others that I see on these boards, so I'm happy on the roads here most of the time. Also, riding in winter here is absolutely fantastic. Good luck!