Safety: Trim segments at junctions

[nemo]

Segments are often created such that they end at or just past a junction. Thus segments can be missed by people who turn the wrong way at the junction, and KOMs can be decided by whoever risks racing through a junction.

May I suggest some way to either vote that a segment be trimmed so that it ends safely short of a junction, or to contact the segment owner to make that request.

e.g. https://www.strava.com/segments/10377635 - segment ends in a roundabout. Could be trimmed to end 50m short of the roundabout.

By trimming a segment in this way, more rides will be registered against the segment, and there is no incentive for riders to chase through junctions.

[Soren]

Hi and thanks for voicing this concern! We do have a mechanism in place that allows anyone to flag a segment as hazardous to alert the community of potential concerns. A segment can be flagged as hazardous for reasons such as safety concerns with junctions. The Hazard Flag is separate from the Activity Flag. 

Although flagging it as hazardous will not crop the segment or allow you to edit it, it will remove it from Leaderboards and other restrictions. You can then create a new segment without the dangerous part.

Read more about it here.

[anchskier]

@Soren - flagging segments as hazardous is NOT a reasonable solution to this issue.  Why won't Strava consider the option to allow a way to notify the creator of the segment that it needs a minor edit?  It has been asked for over and over and over again, yet ignored by Strava.  Strava just comes up with reasons to create more duplicate segments that clutter the system rather than simple ways to fix existing ones.  

[JBW-Florida]

Let me give you my take on this issue, which I've seen crop up here and again. The stumbling block is, that each of these segments has a guy who's the KOM and he's not going to take it lightly if his KOM is somehow revoked by a behind the scenes process. He earned his crown legitimately, and won't tolerate an after-the-fact rules change which disenfranchises him. (Which by the way is not done by any athletic federation or governing body in any sport.)

But that's what will happen a lot if you make even minor changes to the start and end points. Many KOM's are earned by one or two seconds in the last (let's say) 200 feet. If you take out that 200 feet (even if it's in an intersection) the number two guy will probably get the KOM as he sits in his living room. And the (now) former KOM holder will be honked at being demoted. He will flood Strava with emails, make negative postings on social media, cancel his subscription, etc. And bloggers will write articles about how Strava is botching which was at one time a beautiful invention -- the segment.

And the above doesn't even account for this scenario: There's a guy across town whom I intensely dislike. He has a bunch of KOM's. Now, with the edit tool, I can erase some or all his KOM's... that'll straighten him out, yeah! Look, I know you wouldn't do this... but believe me it will happen ten times 10,000 times over.

As far as the segment creator getting requests for an edit -- the bulk of 'em wouldn't want to be bothered with that and they'd either delete the segment or complain that their privacy is being invaded by all this nonsense. Then they, too, would quit Strava.

I'd like a solution too, but my guess is Strava's management is already aware of this conundrum, and we're stuck with the unfortunate segments that are mishaps waiting to happen.

[Jan_Mantau]

As @anchskier has hinted, there is a solution and this is creating a second segment without the junction and hiding the original one. And he is right of course that this is cluttering the segment list for anyone who didn't hide one of the segments yet.

[nemo]

@JBW-Florida I get that some KOM owners are going to get miffed, but it would mean that the only way for someone to take a dangerous segment's KOM "on the road" is to ride dangerously. I'm not that type of person, and wouldn't want to meet or ride with someone that is.

As for maliciously using an edit feature, I'm asking for some way to prompt the segment owner to review their segment, and not for taking control of it myself. Unless you are the owner, that takes away the malice aspect. If you are the owner, you can do what you've described anyway.

Having read what @Soren and @Jan_Mantau have contributed, I think flagging it and setting up my own segment is reasonable. I can then ignore the old one and just get on with my day.

[Ian]

I'm with @Jan_Mantau - trying to contact a Segment creator would probably have a low chance of success as they may no longer be active on Strava or they would just ignore the request.  When I've seen this sort of issue I have created my own version of the Segment, usually keeping the same name with something such as "safer finish" appended to it, and hide the original.  That way I never have to worry about the poorly created Segment again.  I've done similar things with a few Segments that have hugely incorrect elevation data.