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Bike Couriers Bike Shop in the News

Metro
Bicycle business rolls on amid high gas prices

by Byron Crawford
The Courier-Journal
Friday, May 4, 2007

With regular gas going for $3.20 a gallon in Louisville, Jackie Green's downtown Bike Couriers Bike Shop at 107 W. Market St. is suddenly more inviting. "I've been car-free since 1999," Green said. "That's when I gave my truck to an organic farmer." Although Green's wife, Cindy Baker, sometimes uses a car to get from their home in Louisville's Highlands to her job as a physician's assistant, Green said he has used the car only once in a family emergency during the past six months. Otherwise, he walks, rides or takes a city bus. "We're trying to walk the walk, or ride the ride, as it were," he said. "It takes a lot of determination, but we're determined to do it. As a society we really have no choice other than to do things like this, because our economy is going to change. The future is on us now." The couple started a bike courier service in Louisville about five years ago, then opened a companion bike sales and service shop last summer. Their shop has more than 100 new bicycles in the showroom, and in the back there are two bike mechanics, a dispatcher and four riders who handle courier services from downtown to Zorn Avenue, the Highlands, the University of Louisville, the West End and towns across the Ohio River. "All of us making a living off downtown bicycles," Green said. "That's a little renaissance." The bike shop's clientele includes everyone from homeless people needing a chain repaired to millionaires with all-carbon, high-end racing bikes that need new brakes. A native of Louisiana, Green spent part of his childhood in Brazil before returning to earn an English and speech degree from Louisiana College. He later worked several years as a personnel management recruiter for, among others, the automobile industry. His Bike Couriers service now subcontracts with two automobile courier companies, Zip Express and Now Courier, which, along with two large pharmacies, are among his major customers. The cost of most Bike Couriers deliveries is $5. Ron Ping, regional manager for Now Courier, said his company finds it advantageous to subcontract with Green's Bike Couriers on some downtown deliveries because it frees up vehicles for more long-distance jobs. "His product is filling a niche that is environmentally sound, gets some cars off the street and in many cases is a much more efficient way to do it, especially for small packages and envelopes," Ping said. Green realizes that his change from driving a car to riding a bike, walking or taking a bus is not possible for many people. But he believes that it's a choice that many others eventually will consider for economic and environmental reasons. "The geographical circle that I live in shrank immensely, and I am invested … in a smaller area," he said. "It's a slower pace, but it's a very measured, planned pace. You have to be very intentional and you have to prioritize. It eliminates a lot of that hectic-ness of running around -- because it's a given that you're not going to make it."