Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

Pulling her brakes with every ounce of strength, the bike courier quickly decelerates stopping inches from the back of yet another car whose driver didn't signal. Suddenly the screeching of car tires skidding along the pavement echoes through the city's core. A driver talking on a cell phone slides to a stop just before colliding the courier. In a matter of seconds the courier has gone from hard at work to near death. Welcome to life as a bike courier in downtown Calgary.

"You need to have a guardian angel," says Dominique, a bike courier in Calgary for five years. "Every day you know you can be killed. A lot of times you don't realize it, but you do have near misses." Adds Teika, another bike courier who has patrolled Calgary's streets for four months: "I got hit in my first week."

But aside from bad drivers and the "self-righteous" pedestrians who purposely get in the way of the couriers, these two-wheeled messengers thoroughly enjoy their work. "It's the freedom," Dominique says. "We get paid to ride our bikes and there's no boss looking over your shoulder." For Teika, the attraction is being closer to Mother Nature. "You don't have to work inside," she says.

That means the bike couriers are also working their typical Monday to Friday schedule outside in the depths of winter where riding in snow is at times near impossible. Brakes don't work and gears become clogged with ice and snow. "The winter is one big adrenaline rush," Dominique says. "You could die any minute. You never know what's going to happen."

Couriers never know when a call is going to come for them either. Armed with cell phones or radios, bike couriers respond to calls from their dispatcher. The dispatcher tells the riders where they have to go to get a delivery item and where it has to be dropped off. Couriers are paid per delivery and the more expensive an item is to deliver, the more the courier puts in her pocket. Dominique says that explains why some consider the bike couriers reckless -- they want to get places quickly and sometimes that means blowing a stop sign or cutting across a sidewalk.

While many people enjoy riding their bikes, not everyone is cut out for the work, the two large-company couriers say. Riding in traffic is more dangerous than imagined and couriers need a thick skin to deal with the disapproving eye usually cast their way by the general public. "We've heard stories of cars going on sidewalks after couriers," Dominique said. "Every day we have a story."

Those who can handle the work, however, tend to enjoy the work and its accompanying social network. "It's a whole lifestyle," Dominique says. "There's a bar we all go to, camping trips, races... you're always making friends in this industry. And what other job can you have pink hair, piercings and tattoos?"

Are they worried about high-speed Internet connections replacing the need for bike messengers? Not a chance. "I think there'll always be a demand for them," Teika says, adding she just saw a courier ride by carrying a tray of slurpees for a client. "We deliver anything, like Stampede tickets," Dominique says. "Lawyers still want the originals."