Originally Posted by
RobertHurst
Replace them with what? There is still some demand for the service, however small. People don't pay for 15-minute delivery because they think it's cute. So there will be bike messengers until somebody figures out a better way to provide that service. Fortunately for you, there are so few messengers left that it's doubtful that you'd ever lay eyes on an actual messenger when you make your trip into the city. You are likely to see lots of folks dressed in archetypal messenger get-ups of the 1990s though, and clearly that gets your panties in a bunch.
I doubt you have ever seen a working messenger in your life, Tom.
Only if you've been living on another planet.
I already did actually.
Some of us are, and are considered so by the US marshalls we work around all day. I assure you they wouldn't let me anywhere near their federal courts if they thought I was some crazed scofflaw. As it is we are on a first-name basis.
Like I said, I doubt you've ever seen a messenger on the job, let alone met one. If you do they just might be carrying something fairly important, like critical public documents or PET scans from one med center to another. Lots of clueless idiots in fact benefit from the service provided by bike messengers without realizing it.
Get rid of them and suburbanites like you wouldn't notice any difference whatsoever when visiting the city. Have a nice day.
I have to tell you that i think its funny that you as a messenger are upset because posengers are giving you a bad rap! That is funny. As for my not knowing the word, sorry, I must have missed it in the latest issue of Messenger's Monthy.
Ok, as a rule it's not a good idea to tell people what know and what they don't. For example I've never seen a messenger. Hmm, all those cyclist who look like messengers hanging out in front of the messenger service store fron waiting for their next job aren't messengers? Maybe they're posengers and it's a posenger service?
You can make messengers out to be good as you'd like to be, and maybe where you are that's the case, but not here in Philly. In Philly the messengers have a long tradition of being the bad boys of cycling.
When i say the city can do without them, it's from a macro level. Sure some businesses will miss them at first. But, due to short distances that has to be covered, alternative means would be found.
Still, I'm not avocating their demise, i think licensing would be enough to make our messengers become good like the good guy messengers in your city. make them accountable and they then become respectable citizens doing their good deeds.