Gaps in Heatmap

Hi fulmar2,

Thanks for posting about this.  Can you clarify if that first screenshot is zoomed in as much as possible?  I'm curious if those gaps disappear when you're completely zoomed in.

Jane - Thanks for the reply.  In the first screen shot, yes, it is zoomed in as much as possible. In many instances, the gaps do not disappear (though on some tracks, they DO disappear).  I cannot discern any difference between tracks where the gaps disappear / don't disappear; I've considered age of track, point density (i.e. older tracks w/fewer timestamps, etc)...

@fulmar211 

That's interesting,  I'm not sure what could be causing that but we could access your account and take a look.

Please submit a support ticket and we’ll be happy to investigate further.

Thanks Jane. That page you linked says to click "Submit a Request" at the bottom of the page... however, that option does not exist.  I'd be happy if you could look at my account, however.  For some reason, I figured this "bug" applied to everyone... not just me...

For me and biking, it's when I get off to walk my bike that I'm not going fast enough for it to record. Usually that's maybe for a block and when I zoom in that's all I see, but when I zoom out the gaps get bigger.

I have done ragbrai (the bike ride across Iowa) several years and it just looks like dots along Iowa when I zoom out.

Hey, are you calling me slow 😉 😉 ??  

actually, you might be on to something… maybe for slower activities, it shows the heat map as gaps. We do a lot of slower stuff (off-road, traversing mud or snow). Perhaps that is the cause. If that is the case, perhaps  @Jane11 could put in a feature request to lower the minimum speed requirement for inclusion in the heat map. Mountain bike riders can often find themselves going 3mph uphill or even slower if there is mud, 30% grades, or snow. Thanks for your input. 

Hi again @fulmar211 

Sorry there was a problem with that page.  You can email us at support@strava.zendesk.com to create a support ticket.  

I think it could be any time you stop, it creates a gap, no matter how small, then the heat map has the need to make sure you see the gap there, and makes it visible even when you zoom out, hence the gap getting bigger.

I got the same problem. Seems that scaling algorithm of strava is erroneus:
The gaps observed derive from the stops made on the route. If I make a trip of, say 60km without a single stop, then it is shown without any problem and independently on the zoom. Then, if I make a stop, and, checking the heatmap later-on, I zoom in as much as posssible - it is shown as a very small gap. Then, zooming out, this gap should become smaller, effectively disappearing when zooming out. But it works differently - strava wants to always show this break, therefore, it gets relatively bigger when zooming out. 

So, heatmaps for hiking routes are almost useless, as there are many stops on the way. When I zoom out enough to  see the whole mountain range, the route just disappears, or there are just some dots left.

It is far better with bike rides (one stop each 40-50km, not each 4 or less kilometers, as in mountain hikes), but when I zoom out to see like 1500km on one screen, many things also disappear or convert into dotted lines.

This still is as bad and unresolved as originally reported. Can we expect heatmaps to work a little but more useful in the near future? They really become almost useless once you zoom out a little bit.

I don't understand how this is solved. I am having the exact same problem with my heatmaps.

This is not resolved, Qon... Some of my rides (like the one across the USA) is practically invisible there are so many gaps! By the way, I can confirm that it is a "speed thing."  For my mountain bike rides or tours, there are lots of gaps.  For fast paced rides, the lines are solid.

the gap appears when you stop for more than one minute

Agree. The issue occurs with every stop that causes an auto pause on my Garmin. I am fine with a little gap but it just makes the heatmap useless when you zoom out. From a logic perspective: if the ride is 98% tracked with 2% holes -> why should this become 80% holes when zooming out? What is the value for the user to have these gaps overpronounced?

When zoomed out, very small gaps in the route (due to small breaks or stop lights / crossroads) become gigantic, making the heatmap not representative of reality, and just downright ugly. It would be really nice if strava didn’t exaggerate these gaps so heavily and removed them when zoomed out far. 

​@Jane has this been taken up in your product improvement backlog?

I consider this a bug that should be easy to resolve. Seems to be some kind of calibration under the zoom() function where you would need to define what weight the “hole” receives and what weight the “solid line” receives. Thanks for an update from developer side.