Strava’s Metro Reaches Significant Milestone of 10 Year Anniversary

Strava’s active community has logged almost 5B commute miles and Metro has partnered with more than 3,200 organizations

SAN FRANCISCO, November 15, 2023 – Strava, the subscription platform at the center of connected fitness, announced the 10 year anniversary of Metro, a proprietary web platform that provides data insights to qualifying partner organizations to make active transportation better for cyclists and pedestrians. With Metro, Strava hopes to power smarter and more sustainable infrastructure globally and to give back to the communities that support millions of athletes around the world.

Metro’s journey

Created a decade ago, Metro provides de-identified, aggregated bicycle and pedestrian trip insights to transportation planners, advocacy groups and researchers. Active community members who have opted-in and track their trips on Strava are anonymously feeding into the Metro dataset and in turn, helping urban planners and transportation experts in their communities to understand mobility patterns, identify opportunities for investment and evaluate the impact of infrastructure changes, giving more opportunity through improved transportation access.

In 2020, Strava announced that Metro would be freely accessible to partner organizations dedicated to the betterment of cycling and pedestrian experiences. Since then, the Metro partner network has grown to encompass over 3,200 organizations worldwide. These partners leverage insights derived from the Strava community to improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of trails and streets, promoting human-powered mobility.

A global data set impact

Active Strava community members who have chosen to opt in and track their journeys anonymously contribute to the Metro dataset. Their invaluable input empowers urban planners and transportation experts in local communities to create more connected, accessible, and efficient transportation networks.

“The City of Atlanta Department of Transportation has over 36 projects in the works including safe routes to schools, vision zero, complete streets, bike lane implementations, and more,” said Chris Rome, senior director, multimodal transportation engineering at Atlanta Department of Transportation. “With Strava Metro we can understand existing network usage so that we can better plan new facilities all around Atlanta.

“The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation oversees and manages a wide variety of parks and recreational facilities across the county, including local parks, regional parks, natural areas, and multi-use trails. The Strava Metro data was instrumental in informing the 2022 Parks Needs Assessment Plus study, which helped us to identify park access issues, examine and reimagine park restoration and conservation through an equity lens, and better understand regional and rural recreation needs,” said Clement Lau, departmental facilities planner for LA County Parks and Recreation.

“The City of Paris has engaged in an ambitious plan to expand and improve the bike infrastructure in the city,” said Benoît Chaumeret, who is responsible for cycling infrastructure data and quality for the City of Paris. “Strava data gives our teams insight on how the existing infrastructure is being used. We can now give decision-makers better context in which new bicycle facilities are built.”

"Strava Metro has helped us determine where there is a demand for new bicycle infrastructure by understanding where riders are," said Joan Parés, a civil engineer and project manager of Civil Engineer and Project Manager with the Government of Catalonia's Sustainability Team. "We look forward to building out our Catalan Bicycle Strategy (Estrategia Catalana de la Bicicleta 2025) to improve the use of active mobility all around Catalonia."

Around the world, athletes have uploaded over 8 billion activities to Strava and close to 5 billion miles commuted by walking or cycling. When the community contributes their activities to Metro, they become a critical part of one of the world’s largest collections of human-powered transport information.

These insights play a pivotal role in securing funding for active transportation projects, enhancing trail systems, and advancing safety measures. This collective effort has enabled the identification of the top five countries with the highest mileage of commutes:

• United Kingdom

• US

• Australia

• Germany

• Brazil

Social Impact:

Strava remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering sustainable and active transportation choices. The ongoing success of Metro reaffirms Strava's dedication to creating a world where cities are designed with the well-being of cyclists and pedestrians in mind.

The platform recently launched a new carbon savings feature for activities that are tagged as commutes. The feature indicates the athlete’s estimated carbon savings when commuting by running, walking, cycling or e-biking instead of traveling by car.

Learn more about Metro here. For more information on Strava or to start a free subscription trial visit www.strava.com.

About Strava

Strava is the leading subscription platform at the center of connected fitness, with more than 100 million active people in more than 190 countries. The platform offers a holistic view of your active lifestyle, no matter where you live, which sport you love and/or what device you use. Everyone belongs on Strava when they are pursuing an active life. Join the community, find motivation and discover new experiences with a Strava subscription.