By Sheryl McCarthy

Newsday, July 23, 1987
 
 

Bike messenger John Mera was among a dozen cyclists who gathered outside City Hall yesterday to protest the city's plan to ban bicycles in midtown.

"It's stupid," said Mera, 21, a courier for Cycle Service Center in Manhattan. "Fifth Avenue, that's a lot of business. If they close Fifth Avenue, we lose time and money."

 In a 90-day experiment to begin Aug. 24, bicycles will be banned from Fifth, Park and Madison Avenues between 31st and 59th Streets during business hours. The program is aimed at reducing accidents between bicyclists and cars and pedestrians.

Rick Abedon was at 36th and Madison yesterday making a delivery for Prime Time Messenger Service when he learned of the ban.

"I don't think the answer is banning bikes from the street," Abedon said. Bikes, he said, offer a pollution-free way of getting messages between offices quickly.

The city's bicycle-messenger trade has been booming in recent years because bikes are cheaper and faster than public transportation, says Nancy Cooper, president of the Association of Messenger Services, which has 40 members. In 1972, there were only three messenger services using bicycles. Now, 50 have 20 or more bikes, she said.

Not surprisingly, courier services surveyed around the city took a dim view of the ban, saying it would cost them thousands of dollars in lost time and money.

"It's going to cause chaos," said Laura Lucier, vice president of Cycle Service Messenger, which employs 20 couriers. "We're talking about vital industries, ad agencies on Madison Avenue. They won't be able to handle their business in a timely fashion."

Cooper said the ban will hurt not just courier services, but all midtown businesses.

She estimated the average bike messenger makes 25 runs and earns $80to $90 a day. The restrictions would mean three fewer runs a day, she estimated. "

The messengers will make less money. It's going to take more time to make deliveries and pickups. And because we'll have to hire more messengers, we'll have to charge the clients more money."

After hearing about the plan, Cooper said, she called the mayor's office to propose a compromise: Impose no ban on Madison Avenue, but permit bicycles to travel no more than two consecutive blocks along Park and Fifth Avenues.

She said there was no response from the mayor's office yesterday.