Hello all, in continuing my posts on cycling routes, this time will be mostly focused on the road bike. The Strava Heatmap site can be used to find shortcuts and alternatives to heavily traveled routes which usually have a lot of car traffic.
I generally ride routes that go through neighborhoods rather than streets that have high traffic volume because not only do the cars drive slower, there are fewer cars so the risk an accident with one is lower.
Cycling on the streets in the Bay Area CA is a percentage game, cycling with more cars increases your chances or percentage of getting into an accident with one. There are bike/car deaths practically every month in the Bay Area and from what I have seen, most of the accidents are on heavily traveled streets.
Here is the criteria for the Strava Heatmap site. The data is from the GPS 'tracks' from the users of Strava, more GPS tracks typically shows a brighter color.
You can change the intensity of the heatmap as well as the color of the map. You can choose to see a specific sport like running, cycling or swimming.
Below is a heatmap of the world for cycling, you can easily see the popularity by country. (That use a GPS device and Strava)
A shot of the USA
Europe
The far East
And where I'm at, the Bay Area, California
Here is a zoom in on the South Bay area, specifically Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, South San Jose. You can search for new routes to ride and some streets that you may want to avoid due to car traffic.
Another way to find potential routes is with Google Maps. There is a small 'man' icon at the bottom right side of the screen which you can click on which highlights the streets. This is another way to find short cuts and routes that are less traveled through neighborhoods.
Have fun searching for new cycling routes!