

It is already popular amongst riders in Tasmania, with over 4000 riders already registered with Strava.This would inform decisions on where best to concentrate infrastructure funds to make riding bikes for commuting and recreation easier and safer.Īfter investigating alternative GPS-based riding apps, Bicycle Tasmania has settled on Strava as the one to promote. Data like this would enable Bicycle Tasmania and interested governments to better understand where bike riders are riding and at what times. Using a GPS-based system has the potential to gather data from wherever people are riding their bikes throughout Tasmania, at all times during the year. Councils and DIER do some counts, but these tend to vary in their coverage and timing, so once again really just amount to additional snapshots. Although this is an accurate way of obtaining bike usage data, it only covers the locations where we place a volunteer and a short two hour time frame.

During Bike Week every year we conduct the annual bike count, which involves a physical count of riders through common bike routes in the Greater Hobart area during the morning commuter peak. And if everyday commuters and city riders started tracking their trips, PBOT would have a valuable resource to use in planning and policymaking.Bicycle Tasmania is always on the lookout for new and interesting ways of obtaining bike usage and route data. With their permission, users of Strava could potentially opt-in to advocacy alerts and make their voices heard. That’s a very popular cycling spot, yet very few people know about the project. For instance, Multnomah County is currently re-working the crossing of NW Skyline and Cornelius Pass Road. What if Strava and other ride data collecting companies collaborated with ODOT, PBOT, and Multnomah County, and so on? They could use it to estimate bike traffic counts, determine maintenance schedules, and use push notifications to warn road users about upcoming projects on specific roads. Perhaps the coolest takeaway from this Strava data is what advocates and transportation agencies could do with this information. Those are the places I want to explore, and knowing that someone else has been there on a bike makes it a little less daunting to give it a try. I love seeing the little blue lines on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. One of my personal favorite things about this map is how it inspires me to explore the region. If you see a non-linear blob of route heat around a specific location, it’s probably either a bike shop, bike-centric fitness studio, or a place where lots of bike riders tend to get coffee or meet up before and after rides. That being said, it’s still a lot of data and it’s still pretty neat to ponder…īike shops and other places bike riders hang out It tends to only be used by more serious riders as a training and route-finding aid. The vast majority of everyday riders don’t even know about Strava. Because of that it captures only a tiny subset of a city’s overall riding activity. Keep in mind that - despite many media outlets claiming it shows “where cyclists ride” - it actually only shows where people who use Strava ride. We decided to take a closer look at the map to see what interesting nuggets it revealed about the Portland region.īut before we do that, it’s worth making a huge note of caution about how this map should be interpreted. The Strava Labs Global Heatmap is an amazing visual resource that shows the route of well over 77 million rides.

The Strava heat map: What secrets does it hold?Ī map showing where users of Strava ride has become a web sensation in the past few days.
