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Moving from GIS to a web platform makes Strava?s data more accessible to cities with less resources Strava is a fitness app used by more than 47 million runners and bikers, who use to it to track their routes, mileage, or even commutes to work. What those runners and bikers may not realize is that by using the app, they?re arming city planners and researchers with the data they need to help cities improve the bike lanes and sidewalks they depend on for safety.
Strava Metro, the company?s data product, offers cities street-level data about pedestrian and bike usage that can be used to fine-tune an infrastructure project in the works or make the case for it to skeptical city officials. On Wednesday, Strava rolled out the third iteration of Metro?an entirely different web platform the company believes is more user- friendly, allowing cities with fewer resources to take advantage of the tool. ?[Previously] we would share datasets in a GIS format, so you?d need to download the data and work with it in a GIS platform,? said Rodrigo Davies, the team lead on Strava Metro. ?We heard from small- and medium-sized cities that don?t necessarily have that expertise in-house, [and] they wanted to be able to consume these insights in a web browser without any setup time to get to the meat of what?s happening with bike and pedestrian activity right away. So that?s what we?ve built. The web experience is completely new to people.?
Here?s a simplified example of how ...