Strava routes: the wisdom of crowds

[jefmcg]

In 1906 after a competition to guess the weight of an ox, Francis Galton asked to see the individual entries with the expectation of being able to show what idiots the mob consists of. However, when he averaged the entries, the result was closer than to the weight than the actual winner. Thus a crowd 800 people of all levels of intelligence and knowledge was wiser than the best experts.

Many things on the internet try to use this. The most famous, Wikipedia, fails in my opinion as you can't somehow use averages to create narrative. What really works, is strava routes. Imagine if you could ask every serious road cyclist in a region the best route between two places. But better than that, just find out which roads they turn off or on to at each point; avoiding the busy sections, the pot holes, the dirt tracks; seeking out the beautiful descents, the challenging climbs and magnificent views.

Normally if I am planning a long ride, I'll spend a few hours with google maps and streetview, also googling existing rides through the area and audax gpxs. But this weekend, I was invited on short notice to stay in the peak district. I thought cycling part of the way back would be fun, but I didn't have time for all that before I had to leave, and I didn't want to take a laptop with me. So I spent 1/2 hour with strava routes and nationalrail.co.uk, plotting a doable distance with an affordable train service. Then yesterday I put my trust in the crowd, and followed that route.

It was wonderful. Too hilly, of course, because I'm a soft Londoner, but quiet roads with little traffic and amazing views, and towns with good cafes within half an hour of me thinking "time for a little something"**. I really can't imagine there is a better route from Kettleshulme to Coventry.

Strava has a way to use the routes directly from their app, but I didn't try that this time. I'll do it next time I go for a cycle.

TL;DR? "Strava routes are brilliant!"

http://www.strava.com/routes/1118587

http://www.strava.com/activities/215510357 (slow, I know. London legs, and a long while since I've done more than 20km).



**damn, that's close to a Paddington Bear quote, but google isn't helping.

 

[siadwell]

I think the bear you are thinking of is Pooh...

 

[jefmcg]

I think the bear you are thinking of is Pooh...

Totally right. Honey. Eeyore's birthday.

Edit

"Now then, Pooh, time for a little something."

 

[Globalti]

Have a look at the Strava Heatmap for your local routes: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-1.21975/54.13471/yellow/bike

Strava is but a tiny squealing infant in the timescale of transport routes. Ever since people began living in the hills and needed goods carrying from town to village to settlement and back they have used packhorses; packhorse trails pre-date roads, canals and railways by many centuries. The packhorses took the most direct and practical route and over the centuries some merged and trunk routes like the Magna Via to Halifax evolved. What remains of the packhorse trails now represents the accumulated wisdom of hundreds of years of freight carriage, so old packhorse trails (most relegated to the status of footpath so local authorities didn't have to bear the cost of maintenance) offer excellent walking and cycling routes. The Mary Towneley loop off the Pennine Bridleway is built mostly on old packhorse trails.

 

[snorri]

"Strava routes are brilliant!".

...for Strava aficionados, others will seek different sources of information.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

"Strava routes are brilliant!"

if you are a segment chaser, are thrilled by tthe idea of being ranked in a league table, or like visiting honeypots. Oh yes, or if, when climbing, you are into getting scalped by nobbers who are then unable to drop you and whom you have to pass again a bit further up the hill, repeat ad lib to fade.

I prefer the road less travelled when on a bike. I only use strava for recording my running, and I refuse, point blank, to engage in any conversation with another cyclist about segments. "I don't chuffin' care mate, they aren't real, it isn't a race."

 

[bpsmith]

Living up to the name @GrumpyGregry

 

[John the Monkey]

It's worth having a poke at "RideWithGPs" too - I found some corking routes around Dormans when we stayed there this year.

 

[srw]

**damn, that's close to a Paddington Bear quote, but google isn't helping.

"Nearly eleven o'clock," said Pooh happily. "You're just in time for a little smackerel of something."
It must be decades since I read that, but the word smackerel came to mind very quickly.

I was interested by your Galton quote from 1920, because I thought the Central Limit Theorem (of which this is an interesting application - not one I'd thought of) was much older. According to wikipedia it is - de Moivre in 1733 and Laplace in 1812 both had versions of it. And in fine symmetry there's a Galton quote expressing the same idea from 1889.

I know of scarcely anything so apt to impress the imagination as the wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the "Law of Frequency of Error". The law would have been personified by the Greeks and deified, if they had known of it. It reigns with serenity and in complete self-effacement, amidst the wildest confusion. The huger the mob, and the greater the apparent anarchy, the more perfect is its sway.

 

[Racing roadkill]

The thing I like about Strava, is that although it can be a bit flakey in areas with low GPS / phone signals, it's generally very good for route planning. One good example, was a ride I was doing from Southampton to Oxford, a few weeks back. I didn't have a Strava route to reference, so I used google maps. Unfortunately, Google maps had certain bits of the route marked out as minor roads, when in fact they were private roads / inaccessible tracks. Strava picked them out as such. This is why I now use a combo of mapping tools, Strava being one of them.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

...most relegated to the status of footpath so local authorities didn't have to bear the cost of maintenance...

Codswallop. The status of each particular right of way was claimed by the respective parish in the early 1950's as a result of '49 Act. The local Highway Authority just has to deal with the mess that process created, and to downgrade any existing PROW involves a lengthy legal process, which usually fails as it needs public acceptance to do so.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Living up to the name @GrumpyGregry

Says the forum member with a veloviewer sig line.

 

[nickyboy]

The route you took from Whaley Bridge to Sheen (I get a bit lost after that) is exactly what I would have taken being very familiar with the area. It takes in some hard climbs of course but is truly beautiful in places. The Goyt Valley (that's the one-way road after the rather terrifying steep descent to the reservoir) is one of my favourite stretches of road in the Peak District.
So don't listen to those who criticise Strava as your use of Routing took you along some of the best bits or riding the area has to offer

 

[bpsmith]

Says the forum member with a veloviewer sig line.

Just proven my point!

If people like Strava or VeloViewer then let them enjoy it, I say.

I don't chastise anyone who hates either. Why would you?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Just proven my point!

If people like Strava or VeloViewer then let them enjoy it, I say.

I don't chastise anyone who hates either. Why would you?

Help me out. Who precisely have I chastised?

chastise
tʃaˈstʌɪz/
verb
verb: chastise; 3rd person present: chastises; past tense: chastised; past participle: chastised; gerund or present participle: chastising
rebuke or reprimand severely.
"he chastised his colleagues for their laziness"
synonyms: scold, upbraid, berate, reprimand, reprove, rebuke, admonish, chide, censure, castigate, lambaste, lecture, criticize, pull up, take to task, haul over the coals, bring to book;More
informaltell off, give someone a telling-off, dress down, give someone a dressing-down, bawl out, blow up at, give someone an earful, give someone a caning, give someone a roasting, give someone a rocket, give someone a rollicking, come down on someone like a ton of bricks, have someone's guts for garters, slap someone's wrist, rap over the knuckles, give someone a piece of one's mind, throw the book at, read someone the Riot Act, let someone have it, give someone hell;
informalcarpet, monster, tear someone off a strip, tick off, have a go at, give someone a mouthful, give someone what for, give someone some stick, give someone a wigging;
informalchew out, ream out;
vulgar slangbollock, give someone a bollocking;
datedtrim, rate, give someone a rating;
archaicchasten, recompense, visit;
rarereprehend, objurgate
"the staff were chastised for arriving late"