Bicycle messengers have offered and continue to provide a
unique and valuable service to urban businesses. Boston messengers collectively perform between 3000 - 4000
deliveries on a given business day and at a downtown tag (price of a single
delivery) of about $7, the annual revenue of Boston courier services runs
roughly five-million US dollars. Close proximity of bicycles and other traffic puts messengers at risk. Most messengers work as
contractors and hence their injuries are not well documented. Therefore, our goal was to simply document
the injuries and injury rates of a set of urban bicycle couriers.
One hundred thirteen (113) bicycle couriers within the City
of Boston completed a two-page self-administered survey. The survey contained
two parts. The first asked for number
of injuries and the severity of those injuries the messenger has incurred on
the job. The second part asked messengers to describe their most severe or most
recent (to minimize recall bias) injuries and the events leading to injury.
Most working couriers have incurred an injury resulting in
days away from work (70%) and in visits to a health-care professional or
hospital (55%). Annual incidence rates
were large at 47 injuries resulting in days away from work per 100-bike
couriers. The national average is 3
lost-work injuries per 100 workers, with the highest rate at 15 lost-work
injuries per 100 workers in the meat packing industry. Bone fractures accounted for the most days
away from work, followed by dislocations, sprains and strains.
Collisions and avoiding collisions with motor vehicles,
including being “doored,” and pedestrians accounted for the majority (66%) of
events leading to injury. This suggests
the close proximity of other vehicles and pedestrians of the downtown environment
may play an important role in the events leading to injury.
Road and weather conditions and bike features, such as a
broken chain accounted for 16% and 11%, respectively, of the events leading to
injury. Cumulative trauma and assaults
accounted for the remaining 7% of events.
While many messengers consider the occupation to contain
moderate to high risk, only twenty-four percent of the messengers wear a helmet
on a regular basis and 32% have health insurance.
Table 1:
|
|
Mean
|
Min
|
10th %
|
25th %
|
50th %
|
75th %
|
90th%
|
Max
|
|
Age (years)
|
27.6
|
17
|
22
|
24
|
27
|
30
|
33
|
49
|
|
Experience (years)
|
4.6
|
0.1
|
1.1
|
2.2
|
3.8
|
7.0
|
8.7
|
14
|
|
Deliveries per Day
|
28.5
|
10
|
20
|
24.8
|
30.0
|
35.0
|
40
|
50
|
|
Hours per Day
|
8.5
|
5
|
7
|
8.0
|
8.5
|
9.0
|
10
|
11
|
|
Hours per Week
|
40.3
|
20
|
32
|
37.0
|
40.0
|
45.0
|
50
|
55
|
11% of the bikers surveyed were women.
Table II. Overall response and estimated incidence
rates per 100 bicycle messengers.
|
|
% Positive response
|
# Events per year
|
|
Ever injured on the job?
|
90%
|
106
|
|
Injury caused days away from work
|
70%
|
47
|
|
Sought medical attention?
|
55%
|
31
|
|
Hospitalized due to injury?
|
27%
|
11
|
|
Close calls
|
90%
|
25,000
|
