In this age of e-mail and the Internet, when documents can be transmitted with the push of a button, the bicycle messengers of Los Angeles may seem like an anachronism.

While the workload is diminishing, about 100 or so still ply their trade in the streets of downtown and in Century City, mostly serving subpoenas and delivering legal documents.

It’s a job that doesn’t command high pay and means dodging traffic and swerving around potholes. Messengers risk serious injury, even death: It’s believed that at least two riders have died in collisions over the past decade.

“But it’s the freedom of being outside and physically active every day that makes the job great,” said Douglas Forrest, who’s been a bike messenger for 11 years. “You can make a living off it and not have to be in an office building all day.”

At 37, Forrest is a grizzled veteran of the trade; most of his colleagues are in their early 20s and working part-time.

Forrest’s day starts about 8 a.m. in Echo Park where he lives. Like most if not all of the riders, he has sworn off a car and commutes to downtown by bicycle to pick up his first batch of documents at a messenger company, First Legal Support Services.

He pedals around all morning, with a 45-minute break for lunch around noon. Forrest and the other downtown riders generally cover the area bounded by the L.A River, Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, USC and Chinatown.

“Afternoon is crunch time. Most places want their documents delivered by 3 p.m. to make end-of-the-business-day deadlines,” Forrest said. He rides home around 4:30 p.m.

Each delivery costs the client $20. Messengers get about $6 of that. Usually, a bike messenger can do 20 to 25 deliveries, or “tags” a day, bringing in about $150 per day.

About half of the bike messengers are employed by courier companies. The rest are independent contractors who congregate at Flower and Fourth streets waiting to get assignments from the companies, or by anyone who drives up with a package. The numbers come from the California Delivery Association, an industry trade group.

The majority, about 80 percent, work downtown, while the other 20 percent work in Century City.

The demand for their services still exists because the legal world depends on in-person subpoena service and hand-delivery of hard copies of electronic court filings to judges, said Melissa Carr. She is an officer with the Los Angeles Bike Messengers Co-Op, a group that represents the interests of the bike messengers.

Demand has dropped 40 percent over the decade because of the electronic age, Carr said. And insuring the riders a costly prospect has driven some companies out of the bike messenger business altogether. Carr said 90 percent of the messengers she knows don’t have any health insurance.

Carr, at 31, has nine years of messenger experience. She was hit by a car driven by an attorney in Century City a few years ago while on a delivery. But not even that slowed her down.

“We do it because we love it and all have scars to prove it.”