A Vital Service

Bicycle messengers serve a critical function in New York City where, fax machines notwithstanding, thousands of documents and packages need to be moved rapidly from one place to another every day. Messengers provide this service quickly, efficiently and cheaply, and many prominent companies depend on them (including newspapers whose editorial pages periodically rail against them). Most importantly, the bicycle messenger industry could be a model for future appropriate-technology enterprises — moving letters and small parcels through a dense city on human-powered conveyances is an ecological business adaptation par excellence.