FAQ

Strava Metro partners with public agencies of all sizes – Departments of Transportation, Planning Organizations, Trail Organizations, Cities and more – to improve infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians. Whether they’re planning and building new infrastructure or measuring the impact and behavior change after a project is complete, thousands of public agencies around the world use Metro data to evaluate and improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, analyze patterns of people moving in their regions and make impactful, data-driven decisions.

The data provided through the Strava Metro platform has been aggregated and de-identified, consistent with the European Union’s GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The Metro dataset excludes all activities that have been made private by our members and activities from members who have requested to have their accounts deleted.

No. The Heatmap is normalized to improve the legibility of the visualization, so techniques such as raster depth analysis will not produce reliable results. Learn more about how the heatmap is made.

Since we launched the service in 2014, we’ve worked extensively with partners and research institutions to ensure Strava Metro data constitutes a representative sample that enables powerful analyses of the overall population.

First, several academic studies have found robust correlation between Metro data and data recorded by bike counters, and Metro partners who collect additional data have been able to combine the data sources, adjust appropriately, and produce robust insights.

Second, our analyses of route choice by Strava users show they correlate closely with the movement patterns of the larger population and that they chose streets with better infrastructure where available.

Third, Strava’s 110 million-plus worldwide users include people from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. In the UK, one in seven adults is on Strava.

For a picture of Strava’s global reach, check out our global heatmap.

Yes. While Strava is a home for millions of people’s athletic activities, it is also a home for commuting and utility trips. In fact, we’re seeing significant growth in both, and in most cities commutes are the majority of activities recorded on Strava. Read more about the rise of commuting on Strava.

In addition, we regularly offer commuting-specific challenges on Strava to encourage members to replace car travel with a lower carbon impact mode.

No. The “commute” tag helps us identify commuting patterns, but we have developed a model using those patterns to identify additional non-workout/leisure trips that are not tagged. (Tagging your commutes accordingly does help us ensure the data is accurate, though!) 

Unfortunately not everywhere, since Strava trends reflect broad trends in the overall population. For example, research suggests that in the United States, women take around one quarter of the bike trips despite taking around half of trips by all modes. Similar research in the UK has found that women are about half as likely to cycle as men. This is a serious problem, and one that we’re working with our partners to address by making the case for safer infrastructure that serves everyone.

Unlike temporary or permanent counters, Strava Metro data shows run, walk and bike trips in all locations over time, not a single location. When combined with bike counting data, Metro data paints a more comprehensive picture of how people ride, walk and run throughout your entire community and network of streets. Insights from Metro can show that behavior changes at certain times of year, days of week, times of day or after infrastructure is built. 

Learn more about how Metro data is correlated with counter data here. 

No. We do not work with passively collected data such as cell phone data because we do not believe it meets reasonable standards of user consent and would be inconsistent with our approach to individual privacy. We believe our data is inherently more reliable because it has been authentically collected from members who are aware of Strava Metro, are excited to contribute to better infrastructure and have the opportunity to opt out at any time.

Anyone using Strava to track rides, runs and other GPS-tracked activities not set to private is contributing to the Strava Metro dataset. It’s a way for our members to “vote with their feet or wheels” for better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in their community. Click here to sign up for Strava.

Yes – the “mute activity” feature on Strava allows you to hide individual activities from the home and club feeds without making them fully private, so they’ll still contribute to Strava Metro. Muted activities will still be visible on your profile and count towards your Progress stats, Goals and competitions.

No – Strava Metro is web-based, and you can see count data and active travel insights without GIS software. However, you will need GIS to export and download shapefile and other GIS file types from Metro.

During the application process, you’ll be able to select your area of interest by selecting your country, state, and county through the dropdown lists. The county boundaries are based on boundaries available in Open Street Map and have been pre-built into our system. At this time, county is the most granular administrative level we are able to provide, and we’re unable to provide changes or edits to these boundaries.

Yes! Go to metro.strava.com/demo to explore our web platform with some representative data from Denver, Colorado. The data is a sample derived from real Strava activities but is not a complete dataset. Please do not cite or attempt to use the demo data for planning purposes. Please note that data download functionality is not available in the demo.

Tell your community leaders and city planning colleagues about Strava Metro – and we can help. We have successfully partnered with several advocacy organizations to jointly approach the planning staff and elected officials in their area in presenting how to best use Metro. Contact us here.

To ensure that we deliver a positive impact for Strava members and the wider community, we only work with organizations that plan, own or maintain infrastructure or seek to positively influence planning processes. For example, we do not partner with organizations such as real estate investors, financial services companies or retailers.