I'm paranoid too! Here's a screenshot of the privacy settings in Strava (with all identifying data blacked out):



The blacked out map will show the address you enter with a circle to show what area will not show your tracks to other users.

How many kids riding to school use Strava? People riding to dinner or the grocery store? A family riding to DQ?

Counters are the best and most accurate option available today. They give a quite accurate count of the number of bicycles that cross a point. Almost as good (or maybe better?) are the human counts. In your neck of the woods both the city of Minneapolis and BikeWalkTwinCities conduct these on a regular basis. One thing the BWTC count has done is tally based on a number of factors such as dress (lycra or other special clothing vs normal clothes), type of bike (upright, racing, single-speed, etc.), type of riding (wrong way, sidewalk, vehicular, etc.).

OK, I understand your point. However, my point, name a better tool for city planners.

I use Strava for rides to the grocery store, the coffee shop, lunch meetings, etc. So do my friends in Minneapolis. For example:

Luke bikes to the same grocery store that I shop at
Mike goes to the same Target on his lunch hour rides that I shop at
Phil rides his Big Dummy to bring his daughter to pre-school before going to his office
Jenn likes to go to a bar that I've never been to
Andy rides his bike to/from the velodrome for racing

So, to counter your point: Yes, you can see a lot of people using Strava for the mundane, transportation ride. If you are not active on Strava, you'd have no reason to know this. Clearly, the family that bikes twice a year will not be included in the Strava data, but is that important to the city planners?

BTW - it's stupid easy for me to use Strava, I have a Garmin 510 that I use on all rides. When I finish a ride, I 'stop' the Garmin and tap 'save', from there everything else happens automatically, including loading it to Strava.

How do counters count rides using routes that don't have a counter? Counting is important, but is not a complete planning solution. AND Strava is not a complete solution either.

Strava gives you data about the routes people are riding and you can use their data to see when they are riding these routes too. Here's the Minneapolis heat map on Strava, I see no way you can count all these routes. However, you can use a heat map to identify disconnections in routes and then point the detailed counters at that place.



Follow up questions, *if* Strava is only fitness/race riders ... why is not data not helpful? It is helpful to improve routes for fitness riders, making fitness riding more approachable for a wider range of riders, and helps improve the health of the community. Moreover, this thread is about commuting routes and many of my commuting routes are popular with fitness riders (I see lots of group rides both AM and PM commutes). Therefore, spandex riders using Strava are adding data that will help transportation riders.

I use Strava for all rides of any type, because I like to track miles on each bike.

I have privacy zones near my home and office. People can't see where my rides start and stop exactly. Also I have it set so that only people following me can see my rides, and I have to approve follow requests.

Because I don't have a smartphone.

If I had a smartphone I agree, why not use Strava (or endomondo or mapmyride or ridewithgps, or whatever)

I track most of my rides on Strava, including daily commute.

I'll admit that I've never used Strava. Even the idea of Strava wouldn't have appealed to me when I was a purely recreational cyclist. Now that I'm a utilitarian cyclist, I don't need speedometer or any other gizmo that isn't involved in my immediate safety or ability to recover from breakdowns.

I don't need any more data from my commute than the wall clocks at home and at the office provide, except of course, the radar map on my desktop computer to avoid storm bands.

Even that is a LOT more data than what you can get without it... Imagine the cost of trying to get similar data by survey, etc.
I do use strava... on just about all ride! It keeps track of my miles, etc, my condition, etc.
To each his/her own.

Strava is like microwave ovens

when they were first launched, many people said they would never buy one

I don't know anyone who does not own a microwave oven now. Strava is great if you are a serious cyclist, and to top it all, if you don't want to pay the few dollars per month for the premium account, you can still use it for free

what's not to like?

This is where I'm at as well.

I used to have computers on all my bikes for tracking mileage. But since my last 2 bikes I built, I've decided to not put computers on them, and just run Strava as a way to track the miles on each bike.

Why track mileage on bikes? All the wear items can be checked visually and replaced when necessary. I only track mileage on my car to remind me for oil changes and tire rotations. I don't need that on my bikes...

I try to remember to fire it up every time I put my leg over the bike, and manually enter rides on the trainer afterwords. I like to use it to track my mileage as I don't use any other "fitness" software per se. I also use it for running and hiking.

Because I'm a numbers/stats junkie and I like to know.

Plus I like to know ABOUT how many miles (and thus time) to expect out of a chain, certain tires, etc. which can help me budget funds for replacements.

+1 - I'm a unapologetic numbers geek and managing 9 to 11 bikes between the two of us, it really helps to keep a maintenance log with miles and dates of service/parts. Plus if a component fails quickly, I know something is wrong (faulty part, something is out of alignment, etc).

I strava all my bike rides. I like promoting the idea of cycling for both fitness, and errand riding, and the idea of combining the two, which is a great way to save time and money.

I do, yes, because why wouldn't I? I spent the money on a Garmin 520, I'm gonna get all the use out of it that I can!

I use it since I try to use my commute as a workout. Always try to beat my best time. Keeps track of my Milage which I use for maintenance. A few others I work with also compete as a group. At almost 60 I gotta do something to keep going.

I understand the people that don't use tech on their rides (no smartphone/GPS). My daughter is car-free, but she has no interest in Strava. My question should be: If you use Strava, do you use it for your commutes?

If you don't use Strava, I would not encourage a rider to start using it *just* for the urban planners. However, if you're using Strava for fitness rides, why wouldn't you use it for commutes and errands?

I is it on most of my rides, plus on my commute, more as a mileage tracker. I prefer not to ride with the distraction of tech so I just toss it in my pannier, pocket, or saddle bag and forget about it.

I think most Strava users would have it on for commuting unless their commutes are very short. For myself, commuting makes up the majority of my cycling time so I have it on as a convenient form of tracking. With a Garmin 520 it's all automatic and takes zero effort.

I strava when I remember, maybe 50% of the time. Today I discovered flybys... really neat feature that lets you see who passed you and where they are going. I don't race and have only ever used it for commuting and recording recreational rides, plus a few hikes. It didn't do very well in Peru, I can't imagine why.

I fire up Strava every single time I get on any one of my bikes. My grocery store is .6 miles from my door. Both of my local bars are under .7 miles. I track these miles. I also use it on my commute of just over 7 miles, and when I do longer rides, usually ~30 miles. I also carried a backup battery when I did my century last summer so Strava wouldn't die, got the whole thing :-)

All my local club riders use it, and there are segments all over the city which we have fun chasing. I have participated in exactly 1 race, and none of my good cycling friends have. We all use Strava every day. Yes, some racers use Strava, and many of the toughest KOMs are set by some seriously fit and fast people, but that doesn't mean Strava is just for racers. Given the number of cyclists in the world vs the number of bike racers, it would be silly to even suggest that ONLY racers use Strava. They would be out of business.