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Thursday, Sep 09, 2010






Our mission is to
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We help cyclists explore
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Photo by Russ Roca
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This Week in Bicycle Travel

FIRST BATCH OF 2011 TOURS ANNOUNCED - EARLY SEASON & EPIC
We've just announced the first of our 2011 guided cycling tours, including early season supported trips and epic, cross-country rides. Plus, we've added two new fabulous adventures: a self-contained tour of the Atlantic Coast and a supported Pacific Coast trip.

We recommend that you sign up early. During our 2010 tours season, we've seen record numbers of riders, with more than 1,100 cyclists choosing our guided trips. (Note: there are still a few 2010 fall trips with space available!)

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ADVENTURE CYCLING'S LATEST BLOG POST

GeoPoints Bulletin
Jenn, Cartographer
Thursday, September 9, 2010


If you've been following our blog for very long, you know that this past spring we announced the availability of maps for our newest route, the Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route. We were excited to see this route added to our network, and so were you. The maps have been selling quickly, with cyclists already out on the road and ride journals beginning to pop up on the Internet.

Unfortunately, we have been getting some reports that cyclists are feeling unsafe on portions of State Highway 89 in California. Specifically, from McCloud to Truckee. A significant economic activity in that area is logging, which leads to a fair amount of logging truck traffic on SR 89.

In response to this feedback, we have been in touch with the California Transportation Department (CalTrans), looking for assistance with the situation. From my conversation with a CalTrans district administrator, I discovered that there haven't been any recorded conflicts between cyclists and truckers. However, historically, the ridership numbers in this area are also very low. These two factors lead us to believe that a little education may be in order.

Normally, the first thing we do in a situation such as this — after the feedback has been verified — is to look for a reroute. While that is feasible in this case, it would dramatically change the character of the route. There are few roads in the region and even fewer that are paved. We'd have to leave that forested corridor and travel roads closer to the Central Valley or the Great Basin. We'd rather not do that if another solution can be found.

It was already in the plans to send out a letter to all the businesses listed on the maps to let them know about the Sierra Cascades Route. Included in the letter will be a Sierra Cascades decal to display in the front windows of these businesses if they choose. We are now considering doing a follow-up press release to these same businesses and the local newspapers emphasizing the positive economic impacts traveling cyclists have on communities, as well as providing them with a "Share the Road" message. We will also continue our dialogue with CalTrans about the importance of respecting and accommodating cyclists on the roadways.

We appreciate the intrepid cyclists who took on (or are still taking on) this challenging route in its first year. We hope that, with your continued feedback, we can update and improve this route and all the others in the Adventure Cycling Route Network.

Please send us your feedback and map corrections for the Sierra Cascades Route, or any of our other routes, via our map correction form.

--

GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures and persons fromAdventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.
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Check out our full blog.

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ADVENTURE CYCLING ASSOCIATION IN THE NEWS

Even experienced bicyclists learn the hard way that it’s important to check what time the sun sets. Former tour guide Madeline Clarke Jhawar recalls “leading a group of six people on an extra loop in the Veneto region of Italy one October, and the last time I’d done the trip had been May, when I’d also done the extra loop. Not only was sunset earlier, but we hit some thick fog about halfway through the extra loop and it got dark very quickly. We were on narrow, winding roads in the countryside with no shoulder and we still had about 10 miles to go. We flagged down a tractor pulling an empty crate on wheels from the grape harvest, threw our bikes in the crate, and jumped in to chug-chug-chug back to the hotel. We gave the farmer a good chunk of change for his favor.” Perhaps not an optimal experience for a bike tour, but chances are those seven bikers will be talking affectionately about that experience for the rest of their lives.

Read more...

On Monday, the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) -- an influential group of state DOT directors -- announced a report calling on Congress to prioritize funding for expanded rural highway capacity in the forthcoming re-write of the transportation bill. Spending hundreds of billions on highway projects and adding 30,000 new lane miles is sure to raise eyebrows in active transportation circles, but could AASHTO's plan help improve biking conditions on highways across America?

Read more...

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© Copyright 1997-2010 Adventure Cycling Association. Photo by Russ Roca.



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