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RE: Using Strava Heatmaps to find cycling routes
Hi @glennolua - I'm originally from the Netherlands and I can say that is correct. In my village, there's no point taking the car to go shopping, as this would take much longer and you struggle to find parking. We are not wearing helmets, and this helps to quickly hop on your bike to go somewhere (but of course it is already a safe cycling environment). And also, the shops are normally spread around in the main street, we don't have many shopping malls like for example in the US or here in SA. So it all makes sense to hop on a bike - oh yes: and there is no hill in sight, which also helps!
Speaking of Europe, I think that the populations within each country is also a bit more densely packed compared to the US. (Except for the major cities like San Francisco or NYC)
It appears that there is more of a cycling heritage in Europe as well. Teenagers are able to drive in the US at age 16 and being 'lazy', they would rather take a car with their friends to places rather than cycle. The distances are longer for sure and time is also a factor.
If you do look at San Francisco, there is a huge cycling community and it is similar to what you have mentioned above. The stores are down the street so you just have to go a mile or two.
Correct. It's all a combination of factors, and if you would want things to change, there are no silver bullets; (this is the same for most things in life, though). You have to create a culture of cycling, infrastructure, laws, etc etc. The Dutch Government at some point decided to put a lot of money in cycling infrastructure, making sure that it would be difficult to reach the city centers by car, and made sure that in case of an accident, a cyclist has a very strong position compared to a car driver. The very fast E-bikes currently on the road are a new phenomenon, and the Government struggles to come up with new regulations for these bikes.
But but but. Hills are what makes cycling interesting!
A interesting tip to remember when looking at these maps:
When you zoom in on a known popular climb, you can see that it is 'hot' which indicates a lot of riders, BUT it also has a lot more GPS data because the rider is riding much slower uphill. The Garmin's typically take one data point every second.
A interesting tip to remember when looking at these maps:
When you zoom in on a known popular climb, you can see that it is 'hot' which indicates a lot of riders, BUT it also has a lot more GPS data because the rider is riding much slower uphill. The Garmin's typically take one data point every second.
Ah, so the slower we go, the "hotter" we are? Interesting observation!