If you really want to learn about this city, do it on two wheels. Biking is by far the fastest and most efficient way to get around the downtown core, and bicycle messengers know that area best—the one-way streets, the timing of the traffic lights, the alley shortcuts, the quickest lunch spots, and the swiftest baristas. Time is money so far as their urgent deliveries are concerned, and not every messenger looks up to consider the big picture beyond his handlebars. Not so PETER CLARK, a soft-spoken, philosophical messenger who opened his independent business, Via Messengers, last fall. The Tennessee native moved here nine years ago and, after working as a chef, began riding for cash in ’97. “I knew nothing about it. I didn’t know the city at all. I had a bike,” Clark recalls of the gig he found in the classified ads. After that, he continues, “You learn fast. I got really strong really fast.” (Another benefit: The job helped him quit smoking.) After pedaling for venerable Buckey’s for six months, he transitioned into the more detail-oriented field of legal messengering, where riders’ responsibilities go beyond collecting signatures at the reception desk. Not everyone is prepared for “the baggage that comes along with legal work,” but it prepared him to form Via, which also serves as a referral network for other indie riders. He calls it “a graduation from regular messenger work, if you have the guts and the know-how to strike out on your own.” In other words, he’s a businessman and manager, not just a 9-to-5er. He hopes in this way to provide referrals and set an example for other indie messengers—e.g., by gaining a taxpayer ID number, they’re eligible for worker’s comp in a field where most go without health insurance.

Clark also lends his organizational abilities to CAOS, the Courier Association of Seattle, which last fall hosted the Cycle Messenger World Championships, drawing some 500 entrants. “We had a good time,” he remembers, since the competition wasn’t the main point. If that’s not enough, he’s also an owner (with two partners) of the Uptown neighborhood’s five-year-old Counterbalance Bicycles shop, where the mission is “that same philosophy of getting people on their bikes.” The shop’s friendly focus is to serve the messenger and bike-commuter constituencies without overselling fancy, high-end gear. The goal is to sell knowledge so riders “can be realistic about their riding” without obsessing about what kind of equipment they’re riding.

“I think Seattle is one of the friendliest cycling communities around,” Clark concludes. His presence here is one major reason why. Via Messengers: 206-510-2313. Counterbalance Bicycles: 2 W. Roy St., 206-352-3252.

SEATTLE WEEKLY‘S BEST OF SEATTLE 2004 INDEX