Names are important, it's helpful if they give a clue as to what an organisation does or intends to do. Carphone Warehouse is a relevant example because everyone knows what they do even if their name is on the face of it misleading. (I wonder if anyone still goes in there looking for a car phone? Somehow I doubt it.) I think the CTC has long passed the time when it was only interested in touring - in fact I wonder if there ever was a time when that was its exclusive interest - but both it and British Cycling seem to be going through a sort of identity and mission crisis; trying to expand to cover all sorts of cycling and appeal to everyone who sets bum on saddle. Logically there can only be one winner of this race to ubiquity - Sustrans...
The winner of all this will be British Cycling.
BC has got a good PR team, who are working with a skilled membership department, and they are targetting family, commuter and utility cyclists. They're also becoming far smarter at representing all cyclists - not just the racing snakes - and they are listened to in Whitehall, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
BC's long term membership is growing at a rate of knots in contrast to CTC's decline in numbers. BC has stolen a march on CTC.
The one things that really marked CTC out was the support for touring - the route database in particular. However, this part has been neglected and, with wider acces to internet based mapping and routing programmes, this aspect of CTC's USP is fast disappearing. About the only thing or person of any real unique value left in CTC as a USP now is Chris Juden.
