Originally Posted by
Darth Lefty
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.
I would argue that the boomers and Gen X are the most affluent and active generations in history. Bicycle tour operators and cycling-focused vacation destinations are expanding and doing very well. They have just abandoned the ACA. I have an extended screed above listing what I feel are possible reasons. I manage to spend some time in Girona each year, usually at the end of a European trip. The town is bustling and teeming with cyclists; a large percentage are Boomers and Gen X. I also regularly spend some time on EuroVelo routes, which are very busy again with people who have the money and time to enjoy leisure. As for the traditional touring cyclist of my youth, which had a large contingent of young people taking a gap year and exploring, those have abandoned North America for the previously mentioned reasons; shrinking world, lack of support and high costs instead, SEA, Eastern Europe and South America are the destinations of choice for exploration and adventure.