Originally Posted by
TheDudeIsHere
Also, it helps one to find other roads and routes by viewing others around you. I have learned some shortcuts, better roads to ride and good info viewing rides of others. Most important, safer routes!
Interesting point.
Someone I used to work with mentioned Strava and the reference to it was the heat map. The point being the heat map shows more heavily traveled bike routes. That is what I use most for planning new routes. I find a location I may want to ride to then compare the heat map data.
Interesting to note - I take the heat map with a grain of salt these days and compare it to satellite images and trail/multi-use path maps to see if everything "agrees".
When I started riding a lot I was in IL and the Illinois an Michigan Canal Trail was a usual route for me. When I started using the heat map I found it interesting to note that the I&M trail was NOT the higher traveled route through areas where the trail went. It was the roads. I paid attention to that and had it in the back of my mind on my rides. I did note several larger groups over the years were riding on the roads in areas where the trail parallels some of the roads. So I can extrapolate from that what was going on - the road riders were likely the ones using Strava on a noticeably higher usage level than those on the trail thus the higher traveled routes appear to be the roads in place of the trail.
I can see in urban environments where there are no trails the data would probably be most accurate, but the point in the above example is to use the data of other riders as a "tool" to consider in route decisions, but not to necessarily use it 100% if it doesn't suit what you are out to do.