Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
To begin with, the number of touring cyclists has dropped precipitously, especially in North America, due to its terrible infrastructure and driver culture. In Europe, there is still a very healthy touring community, which can be directly attributed to its excellent infrastructure and driver culture. Rather than mimic the lobbying activities in Europe, the ACA instead focused on woke initiatives and other activities not related to its core purpose. The ease with which cyclists can now travel the world and ride plays into this situation. The world has never been smaller and more accommodating for cycling travel. I traditionally take a minimum of 4 cycling-related vacations a year, and none of them in North America anymore. I felt safer and more supported riding in India than I do in North America. The ultimate insult is that the head of Europe's equivalent to the ACA is an American whose sole purpose and mission is to lobby the EU for funds related to touring and cycling infrastructure, and she is doing an amazing job with incredible success.
What does the ACA provide that CGAB or bikepacking.com does not? It's
maintenance of the routes, right? Not in the sense of selling maps, but promoting it with local governments and businesses along the way. The lobbying has to be a return on investment proposition. Imagine going to whoever at Transportation in this administration and saying
anything about bicycles. Europe's pivot to more bike and transit infrastructure is hardly new, so national lobbying is not falling on deaf ears.
Whatever is going on with ACA seems like a last-five-years problem and not a technology-changing problem. Electronic maps and routes are fifteen years ago. I have to think that a large part of it is a steady long term membership of nostalgic boomers that have not been replaced in serious numbers in a long time, and now those boomers are aging out and passing.