hamster

... as well as the rest of the world:

https://connect.garmin.com/explore

Go to "explore"->"activities", click on the layers icon in the top left corner of the map, choose "heatmap"->"cycling".

Curious map. In San Diego, main features are in agreement with my observations: hugely busy north-south 101 corridor from UCSD to Oceanside, and, to lesser extent, from UCSD to Mission Beach; a lot of traffic on the 56 bike path; and a general lack of activity north of 78 and east of 15. In North County, Elfin Forest / Harmony Grove / Del Dios loop seems pretty busy, and there are apparently so many mountain bikers in the canyon north of Mira Mesa that their trails show up on this generally street-oriented map.

In the LA area, you can practically draw a map of good and bad neighborhoods by looking at the heat map. It's curious how OC cyclists sharply disappear north of 55, or that there's a lot of coastal traffic south from Long Beach and north from Rancho Palos Verdes, but virtually none connecting the two (barely 5 miles away from each other.)

jeepseahawk

I saw the new features when uploading today, glad you mentioned it because I didn't bother reading about it earlier and took a second look. I figured heat would have something to do with temperature but wow, this is a cool feature, no pun intended.

calamarichris

That is a really cool map, thanks for posting it Hamster! I can't believe Pendleton is that dead, I always see dozens of riders there. Heck, as much as I ride there, I'd think there'd be some warmth. It must be blacked-out, due to security reasons.
This is going to come in handy. Thanks again for posting it!

Genaro

I'm not sure, but from a quick observation, I'm thinking that the heat map may register start and stop locations as I know their are some pretty heavily traffic areas that are not showing as "hot" Lytle Creek is an example. Maybe its a # of rides that have to go through a particular area during a certain amount of time.

GP

You have to register to see the map.

TrojanHorse

But still, the data looks weird - check out SART. It's lively up by Yorba Park and down by the beach and completely blank in the middle. GMR is also blank. The only street near my house with activity is Seranata (in Whittier) which is a nasty 15% climb... I find it hard to believe that Seranata is "hotter" than East or West road, which are usually littered with cyclists.

There are also plenty of heat spots left by mountain bikers, so don't forget those clowns. Apologies if you're one of them.

Genaro

I think you saw the data exactly how I saw it. and I saw the SART too, but I think that one is simply because Garmin does not officially map the SART like ridewithgps does.

TrojanHorse

OK, now go check out Long Beach right down by that little spit of land that goes out around the light house. There's no way anybody with a Garmin would voluntarily ride on that little path.

Honestly, the map looks like a map of beach cruisers, not that beach cruisers typically have a GPS mounted.

Mansram01

I see a lot of areas that show no signs of use. Granted that this is for Garmin users only, I still find it hard to believe that some areas in Pasadena and Altadena aren't showing anything. Nothing on Angeles Crest or GMR? Think this heat map needs some tweaking. Wish they would invest more in their app and make it more fluid given the cost of their product instead of just adding a new view. So much potential here... Hint: Look at Strava...

jmX

You're looking at the running heatmap. Change it to view the cycling heatmap and the entirety of the SART and GMR (even east fork) is lit up.

MattCycle

I can't speak for everywhere, but where I am, the data make sense. It's also possible that for a long route like the Santa Ana River, there are riders the entire length as well as locals only riding to the next town over. Most people don't drive on freeways for their entire length and with trains most people exit within a few stops. Additionally there aren't many other dedicated routes diverging from the Santa Ana River near the Center as there are either at the extremes where there is another major route or public open space.

Genaro

JmX just nailed it. I was looking at the running heat map. As soon as I switched, It lit up the areas I thought, except for Lytle creek. Interesting, it lit up the SART, and shows where its heaviest. Green River is green, then it gets yellow and more orange towards the coast. PCH off of the SART is "RED" pretty neat

Mansram01

Now it looks much, much better! Didn't see the previous posting by JmX. Everything should default to cycling.

TrojanHorse

No kidding! Runners. Pfft.

Thanks jmX - the world was making no sense.

PhotoJoe 

Not so much as a single trail lit up in Santa Clarita. I don't upload to Garmin Connect. Only Strava. If every cyclist in Santa Clarita did that, then I could see where this would not reflect any activity. Or, we don't have enough cyclists or nice rides to draw them out. Harumph!

hamster

One possible use of that map is figuring out good ways to get from point A to point B.

For example, just a week ago I had a long ride and I had to get from Mission Gorge Road to Mission Bay. I took the shortest route, via Friars. It's not that great a ride even on normal days (60 mph traffic), but this time there was also a long stretch of bike lane closed off with concrete dividers. I had to climb over dividers and walk.

In this map, I see that the way to go was to steer south and to take Camino Del Rio / Camino De La Reina.

Genaro

Another good use of this map would be in picking a place to live, if being relocated by your job or something similar. I would prefer, if possible to live in an area that has high bike traffic

hamster

It's a bit more complicated than that. Any area with high bike traffic is probably suitable for recreational riding and for commuting to work, but the reverse is not necessarily true. An area could have low bike traffic because it's a sketchy neighborhood (look at the big hole in southeast San Diego, between 5, 54 and 94), or because it's not convenient for riding (notice the absence of tracks on the 74), or it's simply too far from areas where many cyclists live. There's a number of good popular weekend recreation routes in north county SD which barely register on this map, because cyclists seem to be concentrated near UCSD and it's really far way for them.

This year's ATOC stage 1 route https://app.strava.com/events/ATOC2013/Stage1 is pretty good for recreational riding (except for stretches on the 78), but most of it does not even rate a 'blue', and it only has 15 or so miles of 'cyan' (Palomar South Grade).

Of course, having high local bike traffic may be a desirable thing in itself, regardless of reasons why it's there.

TrojanHorse

Look at PhotoJoe's example- Santa Clarita has a HUGE cycling infrastructure but nothing is showing on that garmin map. Unfortunately, the heat map doesn't reveal that living in Santa Clarita is like living in an oven for most of the year, so it's not the end-all for choosing a home.

Genaro

It may have the infrastructure, but maybe not the volume. I know both Santa Clarita and it is nowhere close to a cycling "hot spot" as the section in Orange County that glows "red". In this case, yes, the map would be a good indicator as a desirable place for a cylist to live. And, no, it is not the end-all for choosing a home, but a useful tool, if used correctly

hamster

Well, in this case, the heat map correctly indicates that not all is well in the state of Denmark, it just does not say what it is. (If weather.com is to be trusted, it has mean August high of 97°F, I could see how that could be a problem. It gets pretty hot around these parts too, but our mean August high is "only" 89°F.)