AAA, long a foe of the two-wheeler, launches roadside assistance for bikes

AAA has never had a history of being bike-friendly. But this year, the organization debuted its own bicycle roadside assistance plan. Is the idea of AAA for bikes crazy? Though the organization, KFC-like, recently shed its full name embracing the automobile and now goes officially by its acronym, it has never been particularly bike-friendly.

In fact, its very roots go back to the early 1900s, when road systems sprang up for the ubiquitous bicycles and the general population decried automobiles as noisy and dangerous. AAA lobbied for automobile respect; and over the next century never ceased to beg for increased highway funding, lower gasoline taxes, and reduced vehicle regulation. What's more, the association lobbies against public transportation funding. AAA has long indicated that its membership of 25 percent of the U.S. population desires those thing (though critics point out the association doesn't describe its lobbying activities to prospective members, who instead sign up for the emergency roadside assistance and the nice maps).