Originally Posted by
indyfabz
It does solicit and vet information from local people and groups. Personally, I brought about change to its Atlantic Coast route that were helpful due to increasing suburban sprawl in my area. The proposed rerouting came from my experience riding with my local club.
Three things I like about the Adventure Cycling Routes...
1. There is a bit more vetting than a random route one might pull from RWGPS. I was reminded of this when I received a review on a route I had between Washington DC and Annapolis. I had plotted the route mostly for my own purposes of a fairly direct route on a state capitol ride - and hadn't been paying as much attention that it was available as a public route...I also think I created more than one and this wasn't what I eventually cycled.
So I could understand why the reviewer found it to be a busy highways and not a scenic ride.
While there can be issues with Adventure Cycling routes I also find them on average than pot luck of a random trace.
2. Adventure Cycling has services along the way both in GPS track and and paper map. While I don't necessarily stay at those service points (1) it helps me more quickly chunk up distances to look for services in remote areas (2) some places like north bank of Columbia River it gave some non-tradional alternatives my simple Google search would have missed.
3. Sometimes can have just the GPS track but also times to put the laminated map in my handle bar bag. For example last year I picked up the Route 66 map and followed it to Chicago.
Local groups might be better at getting some alternatives or keeping up with changes - but then I have difficulty of finding the local groups and adjusting to differing goals for those groups.