Author Topic: Statistics on cross country tourers  (Read 26656 times)

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Offline John Nettles

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Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #15 on: September 18, 2018, 11:48:58 am »
I think the idea of an online "tour register" is a great idea.  Plus ACA could get some cheap, easy PR.
Various categories/routes could be done.  A permanent list could be established so 25 years from now, people would be still be able to look it up.  It could even try to contain enough data for other purposes/surveys, i.e. % of camping/hotel, what states did you ride in (doesn't even have to be across), links to journals, number of days it took, rest/riding days, favorite spot/attraction/place/cafe, etc.

Are you listening ACA?

Offline LouMelini

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #16 on: September 18, 2018, 12:48:28 pm »
John: one more statistic and opinion.  There are 11 National scenic hiking trails. These are "protected" trails and I believe receive some funding from the Government as a result of the National Trails System Act of 1968. The Appalachian Trail is one such trail. Wouldn't it be nice if the TransAmerica trail, the oldest Adventure Cycling bike route, could be designated as a "national scenic trail" under the Act of 1968. Statistics and number of users would need to be obtained.

Lou

Offline Westinghouse

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #17 on: September 18, 2018, 07:34:09 pm »
I think the idea of an online "tour register" is a great idea.  Plus ACA could get some cheap, easy PR.
Various categories/routes could be done.  A permanent list could be established so 25 years from now, people would be still be able to look it up.  It could even try to contain enough data for other purposes/surveys, i.e. % of camping/hotel, what states did you ride in (doesn't even have to be across), links to journals, number of days it took, rest/riding days, favorite spot/attraction/place/cafe, etc.

Are you listening ACA?

Any method of counting would be limited to the point that an accurate estimate would be impossible. It interests me anyway. I mean, I think that I have done these coast to coast and S to N cross country tours for years. I wonder what proportion of the overall population actually do this. Surely it is a very small fractional minority. An online register would get some numbers. The problem  is many would not register or would not know about registering. And how do we know what they register is true? I have crossed by bicycle many times. Most often I saw nobody at all obviously engaged in a long distance tour.

Offline John Nettles

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Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #18 on: September 18, 2018, 07:42:18 pm »
I totally agree the number would not be accurate but it would still be neat.  Also, assuming most AT hikers know about the AT register, the biking register MAY get more accurate as time goes on and it gets more known.  I would guess relatively few AT hikers do not complete the register if they have invested 6 months of time hiking it.  Perhaps the same thing would happen with cross-country cycling.
Anyway, I still think a register would be neat regardless of the the completeness/ thoroughness of the register and/or the number or percentage using it.

Offline Westinghouse

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #19 on: September 18, 2018, 08:02:16 pm »
I totally agree the number would not be accurate but it would still be neat.  Also, assuming most AT hikers know about the AT register, the biking register MAY get more accurate as time goes on and it gets more known.  I would guess relatively few AT hikers do not complete the register if they have invested 6 months of time hiking it.  Perhaps the same thing would happen with cross-country cycling.
Anyway, I still think a register would be neat regardless of the the completeness/ thoroughness of the register and/or the number or percentage using it.

It would be something better than nothing.

Offline BikePacker

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #20 on: September 19, 2018, 05:45:41 pm »
What makes it nice for the AT hiking and related registration of 'end to end
(i.e., full length e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y  :) accomplished in multiple sections)' or
'thru-hiking' is that it is one route.
With bicycling coast to/fro coast or north to/fro south it is, of course, the innumerable routes possible.
Simply an observation (of maybe the obvious :- ).
Where I suppose I am going with this is that it seems to me that Adventure Cycling would be the completely most common sense promoter, collector & manager of "statistics on cross country tourers." 
IF ACA, John, IS listening maybe they could give it to an intern or find someone who could legitimately make it some part of graduate study of some type.
Such stats would then be, of course, beneficial IF ACA wished to pursue obtaining Ivmelins's suggested Federal National Trails Systems Act designations for any of the ACA routes.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2018, 06:05:31 pm by BikePacker »

Offline DaveB

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #21 on: September 19, 2018, 06:17:02 pm »
I totally agree the number would not be accurate but it would still be neat.  Also, assuming most AT hikers know about the AT register, the biking register MAY get more accurate as time goes on and it gets more known.  I would guess relatively few AT hikers do not complete the register if they have invested 6 months of time hiking it.  Perhaps the same thing would happen with cross-country cycling.
Anyway, I still think a register would be neat regardless of the the completeness/ thoroughness of the register and/or the number or percentage using it.

It would be something better than nothing.
Not if it's misleading.

Offline LouMelini

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #22 on: September 19, 2018, 09:09:01 pm »
At this time no one can say if 200 people ride coast to coast or 2000. Maybe the number is 3000. Currently one can register their ride on the the ACA website, but I don't know what the ACA does with that data. As I envision it, and I could be completely wrong, but a simple email to the members asking "Did you ride coast to coast in the past 5 years"; If so "what year". Did you ride the Northern or Southern Tier, The TransAmerica route, or another route that took you from one ocean to another". From that, a ballpark number of cross country riders could be obtained, not perfect but at least a figure to work with.  From that group further data could be collected such as age, gender, direction of travel or whatever one wants to ask such as "did you intend on riding cross country but were unable to complete the ride". The largest hurdle would be getting people to respond. A small response rate would be disappointing, and probably misleading. With regards to the Appalachian Trail, people seemed excited to register their thru-hike, there was a level of excitement, therefore the AT numbers are fairly credible. One receives a "2000-miler" certificate from the Appalachian trail Conservancy for registering your hike plus a couple of small patches that could be sewn to your backpack.

Offline BikePacker

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #23 on: September 20, 2018, 09:40:07 am »
One receives a "2000-miler" certificate from the Appalachian trail Conservancy for registering your hike
Sort of similarly, The Blueridge Parkway Foundation provides their "End to Ender" certification for registering a trekker's completion of said 469 mile ridge ride,
albeit, the accomplishment can be by bike, car, foot, whatever, and it can be performed in multiple sections over time.
Here is the link for anyone who might wish to learn more specifically on how The Blueridge Parkway Foundation manages/promotes this / fyi:
https://www.brpfoundation.org/content/join-our-end-ender-club

Offline jsieber

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #24 on: September 20, 2018, 01:28:26 pm »
Interesting discussion! We do have a few items on the website that can help people get an idea of how many people are riding cross country. As mentioned earlier in the thread, we have the Ride Registry that allows people to register their tour. Not all of these are cross country rides, but many are. You can also look at statistics across all of the rides or by a specific route.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/ride-registry/

We also keep a running count of how many cyclists visit our offices each year while on tour. Not all of these riders are going cross country but again, many are.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/about-us/visit-missoula/#vistingcyclists

We also have the photos of the visiting cyclists that list the trip they are taking.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/visiting-cyclists/

As there are many routes to cross the country it does become more difficult to track the total number. I think this is something we plan to discuss internally.


Offline hikerjer

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #25 on: September 20, 2018, 10:15:26 pm »
"I think AT hikers are tougher than TA bikers."  - I wouldn't argue that for a second - lack of showers, far fewer food options, and it takes a lot longer to complete
« Last Edit: September 27, 2018, 11:09:54 pm by hikerjer »

Offline hikerjer

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #26 on: September 20, 2018, 11:16:56 pm »
"I think that the number of people who “cross the country” isn’t a terribly useful metric.  It can’t really be used in comparison to anything else, such as tourism spending, highway usage, or infrastructure spending.  Total tourist-miles per year would probably be more useful.  And a harder value to determine!" ---

Jeeze?  ??? All it was was a simple question which I was merely curious about.  Let's not over think this.

Offline Nyimbo

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #27 on: September 27, 2018, 03:39:08 pm »
jsieber: I did a cross country over the last two summers but I didn't realize there was a ride-registry on the site.  So yeah, if I'm a frequent forum and site visitor and didn't know, it makes me think it would be a little bit hard to get registry word out to all the travelers.
Regarding registering at the Missoula offices, when I was crossing w-e I hit the intersection at Lolo at about 4:30pm on a Friday and since the map set said the offices were closed on weekends I decided to turn right. I decided to skip the overnight stop at Missoula since I didn't want to wait until Monday morning for the visit to the ACA offices. 
(by the way - not complaining, I'm glad you all take weekends off) But I am mentioning you might be missing a large percent, maybe 10-20% in your reporting numbers just because of the weekend thing?

Offline jsieber

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #28 on: September 28, 2018, 12:31:04 pm »
Regarding registering at the Missoula offices, when I was crossing w-e I hit the intersection at Lolo at about 4:30pm on a Friday and since the map set said the offices were closed on weekends I decided to turn right. I decided to skip the overnight stop at Missoula since I didn't want to wait until Monday morning for the visit to the ACA offices. 
(by the way - not complaining, I'm glad you all take weekends off) But I am mentioning you might be missing a large percent, maybe 10-20% in your reporting numbers just because of the weekend thing?

We do have Saturday morning office hours during the summer months specifically for traveling cyclists that are coming through on tour. We keep the summer hours updated on the website here: https://www.adventurecycling.org/about-us/visit-missoula/

Offline Westinghouse

Re: Statistics on cross country tourers
« Reply #29 on: October 07, 2018, 10:19:09 am »

It is a simple question of how many people cross the US by bicycle each year.
A really, really worthy question Westinghouse & Hikerjer.
I have long wondered, as well as, long decided
that if ACA can't conservatively accurately estimate this figure then,
probably (? :-), no one can?
I'd love to see it estimated in some of these subsets:
1.  Atlantic - Pacific (either direction).
2.  Canada - Gulf or Mexico (either direction).
3.  End to end in one trip, aka non-stop.
4.  End to end via more than one trip (i.e., not non-stop).
5.  Has to be by year completed, or else the calculation could never arrive at your above 'each year.'
[/quote]

Perhaps the best that can be achieved are accurate numbers from bicycle touring organizations. They know how many start and how many finish. There would still be those who do it and take no interest in registering it. But the question remains. How many? I did the PCBR Ana Cortes to San Diego. I saw maybe 20 others obviously loaded for long distance touring. From talking to others, I was the only one going the distance. Of course, there might have been others taking the day off or in coffee shops of buying food when I went by. I did the Atlantic coast 4 times. I did not see anybody else at all loaded and touring. I have done random tours such as just taking off with no destination and just looking around. I saw nobody else obviously loaded and touring. In the UK bicycles were everywhere and many were used for touring. The tourist I spoke to were mostly on weekend jaunts and that sort of thing. I am of the opinion at this time that the authentic transcontinental bicycle tourist is a rare and not easily quantifiable subject.