Filter route heat map by activity on mobile

[Devinm5]

When planning a route on mobile, need the ability to filter the heat map by active activity type. 

Currently, when planning a route on mobile, the heat map does not filter by type. For example: If planning a run, the heatmap reflects common cycling paths, mountain biking, walking, hiking, and running paths. This makes it extremely difficult to plan an activity in a new location, and be confident it is actually a commonly traveled path. 

I find when planning a run on the mobile app, using the heat map, I'm often mislead and lead down dangerous high traffic roads with no running path or sidewalk, because the road is commonly traveled by road cyclists. 

Currently, the heat map can only be filtered by activity on the desktop/web application, 

[Jane]

Hello @Devinm5 

Thanks for posting about this.  Can you clarify if you're talking about the Global Heatmap layer or personal heatmap layer?  If you go to map settings when route planning on the Mobile App, you can filter by activity type on your personal heatmap.

[Devinm5]

Hi @Jane !

It's best shown with pictures...but basically, even though you select "running" on the mobile app, the heat map is shown for Running AND Cycling...AND any other activity. Strava is one of my favorite apps for finding running routes, however, it is not safe for route planning if you are unfamiliar with the area - as it will show an unsafe road to run on as a commonly run road via mobile. 

Example below:

From the mobile app, you can see i have the route planning filtered to running. by looking at the heatmap, you would expect that "Tom Query Rd" and "Caldwell Rd" are both very frequently traveled by Strava users and should be "safe" to run on.

But looking at the web application for the same route, and running selected:

You see that those roads in fact are NOT safe or frequently traveled by runners. In fact, Tom Query Rd. is a very high traffic road with no shoulder or sidewalk. When route planning via the website, the heat map filters by activity allowing you to see that most runners go through a neighborhood rather than just run down the busy main road. The mobile app is actually showing those roads are a common cycling route (which is true) however, when I'm planning a run...I don't care about common cycling routes, and it leads to uncertainty in knowing if the route I'm planning is for cyclist, mountain bikers, etc...or runners

I'd like the heat map to have the same filtering capability for the mobile app as there is on the web app, so when I'm somewhere new with just my phone, or just feel like trying to head out for a run, I can be confident that I'm running on a path that other RUNNERS use. The filtered heatmap from the website is great at showing commonly run roads, and helps predict sidewalks, and safe/low traffic situations.

[Jane]

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

[Vincenzo]

Ciao Strava team. Are you working on layers or just like on desktop? Ex. On desktop you choose run and you can see run based heatmap and so for bike. It could be very useful to add layers on mobile. You could choose (while creating a running/hiking route) a cycling path that you would not be able to see without the opportunity to change the layer. 

[Cazasjohnston]

This needs to happen, I created a run last week and it took me down a very busy dangerous road

[Devinm5]

@Cazasjohnston agreed! 

@Jane - this is exactly what this enhancement should help with. 

[Dabar]

If you're looking at this then we need to consider the types of bike routes. If there was a way to have a heat map for road bike rides or mountain bike rides as the route will be very different for both. 

I've been caught out with route planning for a road ride and ended up in a field!!! 

[Gingerflash]

It's frustrating that the mapping page on the desktop site has a different heatmap for different types of cycling, yet the route creation page does not.

The mapping page can show the most popular mountain bike trails, road routes, and gravel trails. However, you can't create a route on the mapping page. Instead, you have to go to the Route page, which lumps all cycling together when it comes to the heatmap. Why is this? Strava obviously has the data on the most popular routes for different types of rides - why can't we have that info where we need it most, on the route creation page? 

Also, when we select "prefer dirt", this has no effect on the heatmap, even though Strava knows which trails are dirt and which are paved. Allowing us to easily see which are popular dirt trails for mountain bike or gravel rides would route planning so much easier.

The workaround is to have two or three panes open and flick between them, which seems unnecessarily awkward.

[Tommic]

I agree. I used another app for routing mountain bike trails, which shows the difficulty based on OpenStreetMap's MTB scale (Komoot and Trailmap). However, in some areas, there are many trails with similar difficulty levels, and it would be nice to check from Strava which tracks are popular based on different cycling heat maps. For example, popular gravel trails are probably too easy to ride with a full suspension bike. On the other hand, popular mountain bike trails are no-go tracks with gravel. So, I miss these features from the app. 

As a bonus, it would be super great to see the track difficulty, like in Trailmap app.