Add filter to global heatmap to view more granular activity types eg. ride vs mtn bike ride

[tiupa]

Right now it is only possible to filter activities based on general type of activity (cycling, running, swimming, skiing). It is not possible to drill down further into these activities (e.g. show heatmap only for road bike). This would improve the heatmap feature a lot - as a road biker, I'm not interested in mountain bike activities. Even worse, sometimes you end up on a road which is not suitable for your bike. This could be easily avoided. I would even pay extra for this feature.

Best regards

[tiupa]

Right now it is only possible to filter activities based on general type of activity (cycling, running, swimming, skiing). It is not possible to drill down further into these activities (e.g. show heatmap only for road bike vs. mountain bike activities). This would improve the heatmap feature a lot - as a road biker, I'm not interested in mountain bike activities. Even worse, sometimes you end up on a road which is not suitable for your bike. This could be easily avoided. I would even pay extra for this feature.

Best regards

[Jane]

Hello  @tiupa 

Thanks for your idea! We have slightly modified the wording to make it clearer to understand and to make it easier for others to search and vote for.   Your idea has been reviewed by our moderation team and is now open to voting.

[tiupa]

Thank you Jane. How many likes does an idea need in order to be reviewed? 

[Mirunia]

That feature will be a game changer. Big thumbs up for this idea 👍👍

[Soren]

@tiupa we don't have a specific number, per say. You can read about what criteria we take into consideration in our Community Guide to Ideas.

[Almond50]

Problem

Filtering on route planning and heat map doesn’t allow for detailed understanding of the road types. 

Details

Route planning for a bike ride will currently allow you to filter by paved roads, unpaved etc but for a road cyclist just because it’s paved doesn’t mean it is good to cycle on. 
I have moved to a new area recently and I don’t know the roads well. Creating routes on Strava I have often been taken onto to paved roads but of poor quality. 
A paved road may be good for commuting on comfy tyres but on a racing bike be unsuitable. 
Traffic on paved roads will also differ and is not taken into consideration when route planning or on heat maps. 

Solution 

Increased filtering options. 
It would good to be able to filter the global heat map by more precise criteria. This would allow a user to see the heat map most relevant for the type of ride they are doing.

By defining more criteria about your ride on the route planner it will allow a more suitable route to be created. 

•  Filtering by the type of bike used will allow a user to differentiate between roads that are popular with commuters and those that are popular with road cyclists.
• An extra section could be added to “Your Gear” to allow a user to add their tyre size. This could then allow filtering on heat map and route planning by the tyre size. 
• Filter by average speed of all users on that road. A higher average speed is likely to show that a road is not full of traffic lights or pedestrians etc that slow a rider down indicating it’s more suitable for road cyclists. 
  
• Segment reviews. Users could be promoted to rate segments out of 10 based on pre defined criteria. This could be quality of the road surface, traffic levels, scenery etc. This would allow Strava to collect more precise data on individual roads and allow users to create routes that included the most suitable segments for their ride. 

[Soren]

Thanks for submitting your idea. It has been reviewed by our moderation team and is now open to voting.

I'd like to point out that we just launched an improvement where when you look at a suggested route, it will populate 10 of the most recent activities that correspond to it, as long as the activities have their privacy controls opted in to share their activities. When going to the maps tab in the mobile app > routes > select a route > see details > scroll down till you see "Recent Activities". This provides additional insight via the descriptions, photos, data such as speed, time to complete the route, etc. We will continue to make improvements to this feature and your feedback is much appreciated.

[RafK]

I had the very same idea. Thanks for posting. 

[Dennis]

When I was just planning my route I looked for the option to edit the Global Heatmap by applying the Surface data as a filter. It was not there. But it looks like someone already had this great idea! 

However, the solution of @Almond50 may be a bit too complicated or specific. As a simplified solution to the original stated problem above, you can combine two already known data sets, Heatmap and Surface, to create a filter.

Suggestion:
In the route planner, create a drop-down-menu on "Global Heatmap" that show the same options you have for the Surfaces area:

• Show paved roads
• Show unpaved road
• Show all surfaces

Like here in Dutch:

[DaveMK]

I love the Routes function.  I use it all the time to build new rides and hikes.  Would it be possible to add a surface selection tool to the Map Preferences section that modifies the heatmap to only show routes with the selected surface type?  You could add a drop down box that allow the user to select the three surfaces of Paved, Dirt, Not Specified.  Theses surface types are already tagged and used to calculate percentages as the user builds their route. 

This added functionality would allow users that want to travel on certain types of routes to only see the heatmap for their selected surface type(s).  As a mountain biker, I'd like to eliminate all paved surfaces from the Global Heatmap so that I can more easily identify and map new mountain bike routes.

[MARCÃO]

I do support this idea! 🤗 

As a mountain biker, I love to explore around by planning & creating new routes based on global heatmap data. However, routes too close to mountains are sometimes only suitable by walking (Trail) or running (Trail Run). In other words, not suitable for mountain bike.

[Jluck]

How is this not a thing by now. 

[magnuus]

Similar with backcountry skiing. Would be a huge improvement to be able to filter out all other winter activites! It is hard to understand the terrain when normal nordic skiing is in the same map, often with the same starting point. 

[milesscotch]

I would love to be able to filter my rides based on possibly a tag of some sort as well. Then see those rides on a heat map. This would be an enormous benefit to me.

[Rokas]

Please make filtering a multiple choice, not a single choice, option. I can find wonderfull roads while hiking, or find roads suitable for road riding while gravel riding, etc. Now, if I have already started to build my route, and I want to apply my gravel riding personal heatmap, it messes up my whole route.