Where people ride

What if you could draw a map of where people ride their bikes or run? Based on actual usage data, not just looking at transit map or an aerial photo of where people might ride, could ride because “well, there’s space for it there”.

It’s being done.

I hear “Yah, ummm ok”.

This is the age of wizardry. Clouds live in your pocket, mapping with tweets or google cars or real time wind is so last year, so old. We all know New York, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, … are crammed with millions and millions of people, so of course someone has built this map for them. They need it, they have resources, human power, they have it.

It’s being done here.

“…?”

Here. In Canada, in the Yukon, in Whitehorse, population 22,000. Here.

A bicycle travel heat map, where colour intensity and thickness indicate traffic amount. Part of total of 140 million rides and runs worldwide from Jan 2014 – May 2015. Users track their rides and runs on a smartphone or with a GPS device with Atrava app. Strava then removes personal information linked to the user and structures the data for compatibility with geographical information systems (GIS). [and sells of course]

 

“!”

That’s better. If you’re alive in 2015 and not in a near constant state of awe there’s something wrong. Wake up, pay attention. It’s magic out there.

 

Found by way of Brian Timony’s MapBrief, of which this story is but one tiny link from one sentence. Go forth and be amazed.