Do you Strava on your commute?
 

When I started using Strava, I never used it on my commutes. After a couple years, I decided I like to use it to track miles and miles per bike. And I hoped this would happen:

"In Queensland, Australia, city planners purchased Strava’s data to get quantitative numbers of how many people are using a new cycle path. Portland, Oregon, has purchased Strava data, and oddly enough, so has Orlando, Florida."

Why Bike Commuters Should Be Using Strava

I just started at the beginning of this year. I used it previously for my training rides but not for commuting. Of course, bike commuting is not even a thought here in my neck of Florida.

I do. But Houston is a car city because oil, idiots, and idiots that drive.

I was just in Orlando earlier this month, and I understand your point about bike-commuting in FL .... and a little shocked about Orlando buying Strava data.

So Central Florida is a little more on the band wagon than the space coast. There is a bigger push to make bike paths more accessible. The Coast to Coast connector is an example of that (Coast to Coast Connector Trail | Florida Bicycle Association). There is a big push in Orlando for a green movement. They just finally got a commuter train (SunRail) started back in 2014 that has been fairly successful, when it doesn't hit a car driven by stupid people who don't know how to obey a railroad guard. But everytime I go to downtown Orlando, I see more and more paths opening up that I didn't notice before. I don't know if they have been there all the time or now, since I'm new to bike commuting, I'm noticing them.

Yes. Why wouldn't you?

I've occasionally used Strava for workouts, never for commuting. I prefer my commuting to be very simple, no computers, no special clothes, just get on my bike and ride to wherever I'm going.

As to using Strava data like they are I'd think it a waste of time and money. I don't see any way that anyone can get accurate data given how very few people, likely well below 1%, use it.

I do several small trips a day on my bike (self employed and work at several sites), and I cycle 7 days a week ...

I now record all my rides on Strava .... it all adds up .... last week I rode 253.9km (157.7 miles)

great fun as I have certain segments that I am trying to better my times

I am not an OCD cyclist, so no I don't use strava.

Also those who use strava probably don't represent the average cyclist in how, when, and where they ride.

There is a Bike Forums group on Strava.

I guess I should say that if you are already on Strava using it for recreational or training rides, why wouldn't you also use it for commuting?

Yep.

I use the app MapMyRide, when I remember. Which is to say I've had the app for roughly 3 years and have 2 saved routes. Woops?

Yes, I do. Mostly because I heard Strava data is used by organizations for planning purposes.

The side affect has been to help me track mileage for my bikes, and helps justify to the dear wife why i need that new something or another.

I don't do Strava, but I use my Garmin every time I get on my bike. I use my commute to work as a training ride, so I like to know how it goes. My return trip is more leisurely, but I still want to clock the mileage.

Don't have a cell phone, commute distance is always the same, time is a random function of traffic light timing, don't care anyway.

I think your point is that the only riders using Strava are racing, and that was true when Strava hit the market. However, that has changed a lot over the last couple years. I can only speak for my town and my circle of friends, we are extremely representative of the local bike commute routes, times, etc. I'm certain that there are some areas where only the 'racers' are using Strava. However, please tell me about any other tool city engineers can use to understand bike routes, times, gaps, etc.

I use Strava the first time I ride a route, just out of curiosity for what the mileage is. I also think the route maps are cool. But if my town ever starts to use that data to determine how many new bike lanes are needed, then I'll be using Strava all the time.

I record everything, nice to see how much riding you do, those commutes can push up you distance in the year.

Not surprised that cities are now starting to use Strava for planning data, guess it will happen to the UK soon (if not already), as looking at the worldwide heatmaps that Strava puts out every so often, the UK always seems to be just being the US in users.

Question. For those who use an app like Strava, I use Endomondo, do you record your rides right from your front door? Seems to me that would be like posting your physical address online. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I don't record my commutes with GPS. I use a regular bike computer for that. For those who ask, "Why wouldn't you?" I ask why would I? However, the OP gives a good reason and food for thought. Thanks.

For Stava (someone who uses Endomondo will have to advise for this) you set up a privacy zone from your home/start location. This will prevent anyone seeing exactly where you live.

If you live in a rural area, this won't be as useful as if you live in a town/city, where the zone, especially if off set makes it pretty hard to ID where you live.

google location history knows a lot more about my cycling commute than does Strava, using cell tower triangulation even without my having to go through the app startup routine. They have that data for anyone who carries an Android phone and has location services on (default on phones) So I think they'd have better data dealing with Google.

I use Strava on my commute every once in a while, mostly to re-calibrate my perceived effort. Beyond that the segment times are always about the same depending more on how many times I slow down for pedestrians and slow cyclists than on effort.

I do. Like you @hypno toad, I like to keep track of mileage on each bike. I've also picked up the odd KOM while commuting on my single speed.

I've used it all of 2015 and continue now into 2016. My watch is Microsoft Band 2, it has a biking icon that links me to Strava automatically. For me it's just two pushes of a button to get going. Everything else happens automatically. It's nice to check my stats once in a while. One particular feature I like is FlyBy - it let's me see other Strava commuters whom I met along the way in a 'Harry Potteresque Marauder's Map Kind Of Way' :-)

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

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=506332

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.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=506340

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.