Documents the lives of a group of bike messengers over a nearly three-year span. This film was made by couriers, about c | dG1fdXdrNUk0amt0TWs
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 To be a bike courier that doesn't get yelled at is either a myth or a lie.
00:08 Haters gotta hate.
00:12 There's a bond once you've done couriering and dealt with traffic and all that and all the people not respecting you on the road.
00:20 You're kind of branded in a way from that experience, right?
00:23 Well, yeah, a lot of people do seem to think couriers are a threat or a menace.
00:28 I think the main thing is though is the racing through traffic.
00:31 People see that and they say, "Holy cow, those people must be totally insane. That's ridiculous dangerous. What's wrong with those people?"
00:37 You must have a death wish, but you know what I mean?
00:40 Once you've done something 10,000 times to someone else who's only never done it before, it's going to look like magic.
00:47 You're going to make it look easy to that person who's never done it before, right?
00:50 You can't really know what it is until you do it, you know what I mean?
00:53 I say that about a lot of things, but that's really true about being a bike courier.
00:57 A lot of drivers expect you to be like a pedestrian when we're supposed to be like a vehicle.
01:05 No yelling at you to get in the bike lane or yelling at you to move over.
01:10 It's symbiotic. You need to work with each other.
01:15 You don't exist to them and you have to know that you don't exist to them and that's how you keep yourself alive.
01:21 It's playing a fun little game, playing invisible man, and you'll be alright.
01:27 I don't know. Drivers are going to do fucking stupid shit. That's what they do.
01:32 Talking on cell phones and doing their nails and shit, but that's just fucking...
01:39 It comes with the territory. Every courier knows you learn this little shit when you see a wheel turn or something like that.
01:47 You know what I mean? That's half the fucking fun of it.
01:53 Being able to just fucking see shit before it happens.
01:57 I was telling my dad one time, he was talking about that.
02:01 How that foresight can transcend into other aspects of your life.
02:08 I'll be at the fucking grocery store or some shit, right?
02:12 And it'll be crowded, people are walking around and I'll be like...
02:17 I'll know that this girl is going to step this way because I looked at her grocery basket and she's got tomatoes, cucumber,
02:22 and I know that she's going for the feta. You know what I mean?
02:25 I know she's going towards the feta, so I go this way before she even knew she was going towards the feta.
02:30 You know what I'm saying? That type of shit.
02:33 It's funny how couriers are good for that.
02:37 I think that something's going to happen before it's going to happen because of the environment and the surroundings.
02:45 People say, "Well, you break the law."
02:48 I break the law as soon as I pick up my bike, every trip.
02:51 For one thing, I'm riding the sidewalk.
02:53 If my bike's on the sidewalk, I break the law.
02:55 How many times do I break the law? It happens.
02:58 Every trip, I'm breaking the law somehow.
03:00 Is it necessary? Absolutely.
03:02 You could just ride really calm and frigid-like and not do anything and not make any money.
03:09 Your clients, my clients, expect us to do it right away, get it done.
03:13 When it says it's on an urgent, it means it's on an urgent. They're expecting it.
03:16 You get it there. And you do it as best way as you know how.
03:21 It's always in the back of your mind.
03:24 If something goes wrong, you can lose.
03:27 A 2,000-pound car versus me on a bike, I am going to lose.
03:32 I don't think I stress about it very much, but it is always in the back of your head.
03:38 I think you've got to keep that in mind. You've got to know where you've got to be to be safe.
03:43 Most people see us as that jerk ripping through traffic and swerving in front of people and cutting cars off and flipping off cars and stuff.
03:52 I think that's just sort of mental stress.
03:58 I don't think it really affects the way I deal with people or the other couriers deal with people.
04:03 I think people just need to talk to couriers and interact with them.
04:08 Then they'll see we're all kind of good people.