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"Glasgow to monitor cycle traffic through new app"

(24 posts)
  • Started 9 years ago by chdot
  • Latest reply from Stephan Matthiesen

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    CYCLE traffic across Scotland’s biggest city will be tracked by an innovative free mobile phone app launched by Glasgow City Council today to focus improvement spending on the busiest routes.

    Cyclists will be encouraged to share information about their journeys, which is recorded by the Glasgow Cycling app as they pedal.

    The council said cycle trips into the city centre had trebled to more than 9,000 a day over the last seven years, but it has only limited information about the busiest routes.

    "

    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/outdoors/glasgow-to-monitor-cycle-traffic-through-new-app-1-3604144

    Posted 9 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Could they buy such data off Strava which would provide a far bigger dataset? Of course that might just provide information about a certain "sort" of cyclist who feels the need to run a GPS it's-not-a-race-but-it-is app (I cast no nasturtiums)

    Posted 9 years ago #

  3. Morningsider
    Member

    How can you possibly base investment decisions on the routes taken by the few hardy souls who cycle in Glasgow? They are likely to be highly unrepresentative of the general population - including those who want to cycle but choose not to.

    In addition, the routes they take are likely to be sub-optimal due to current road conditions.

    Tokenistic nonsense.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    "Tokenistic nonsense"

    Perhaps but it says they have "only limited information about the busiest routes" and "to focus improvement spending on the busiest routes", so they (seem to) have (already) taken a decision to improve most used routes.

    That ought to be progress.

    Whether it's the best place to start is of course debatable.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Keith Irving, Chief Executive Cycling Scotland, urged other cities to follow Glasgow's example.

    He said: "All councils should be increasing monitoring of cycling levels. This initiative by Future City Glasgow combines technology with data to develop information about cycling conditions in Glasgow. We hope it will be successful and could feature in a future Cycling Scotland conference as best practice to be copied across the country."

    "

    http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=14348

    Posted 9 years ago #

  6. magnatom
    Member

    Their recent reply on my blog should be taken into account when deciding on the benefits of such a scheme... http://www.magnatom.net/2014/11/cycle-friendly-glasgow-petition.html

    Please share your thoughts...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  7. magnatom
    Member

    I should add, I concur with Morningsider on this one.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  8. Morningsider
    Member

    chdot - Glasgow City Council know exactly where the busy routes are. They are the main roads linking where people live with where they work/study/shop. Cyclists are just people on bikes - they generally want to go where everyone else is going. The fact people choose not to cycle these routes is neither here nor there. These would be the busiest cycle routes, if they were attractive to cycle. (I know you know all this).

    Magnatom - it's kind of hard to know what to say. I clearly have a different definition of "enormously successful" from Glasgow City Council.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    Indeed.

    Perhaps Glasgow's cycling iPhone users (Android version coming) will spend some time on more interesting routes to give them the 'data' they need.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    Though as you have to sign up to even look at the app, might not be many takers...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  11. ARobComp
    Member

    Why not just use this instead of reinventing a "sign up only wheel"

    We have a saying in marketing. Identify your target market, go out and find out where they already hang out, engage with them there. Building new communities is incredibly hard. The way this would of worked of course would have been if they'd offered some sort of other incentive - ie. use this app to report potholes on your route etc.

    http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#13/-4.26699/55.86151/blue/bike

    Although I'm very much on the side of morningsider with the idea that tracking where people currently cycle is pretty pointless...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    Nice 'pic'.

    "Although I'm very much on the side of morningsider with the idea that tracking where people currently cycle is pretty pointless..."

    If you want to encourage/facilitate cycling (and use money 'wisely') yes.

    GCC has already decided to spend (its pre-decided limited amount of) money on 'main routes'.

    That's what councils do. They shouldn't, but they are 'stuck'.

    magnatom hasn't persuaded them. 'We' won't either. Neither will Transport Scotland (even if it wanted to!) or GoBike or TransformScotland etc.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  13. amir
    Member

    Use of GPS tracks is notoriously biased. They under represent sectors of society. On More or Less there was an account of the brilliant idea one local authority had (USA?) to find out where potholes were on its roads, using a phone app. However this under represented poorer areas.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  14. Darkerside
    Member

    I'll be writing something up on this over the weekend (and liberally plagiarising what's been said above in the process).

    I was thinking particularly about amir's point whilst cycling in this morning. A comparison between iPhone ownership by age and income with the demographics of Glasgow should be intriguing.

    Some Googling will be needed for the phone ownership stuff, but it's hopefully out there somewhere.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  15. amir
    Member

    Is there a class difference between iPhone and Android users? /closecanofworms

    Posted 9 years ago #

  16. neddie
    Member

    Why should the general public have to report potholes/faulty lighting?

    It the council's job to find and fix them. (It's not like it's hard to find them or anything)

    Posted 9 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    "Is there a class difference between iPhone and Android users? "

    Well I suppose that's like asking is there a difference between Dawes owners and Raleigh owners.

    Both own bikes. One may imagine they have the superior brand. Dawes (originally) was more 'handmade, attention to detail' bikes. Raleigh has always produced some outstanding bikes and has often been an innovator, but is essentially a mass marketeer with something for (almost) everyone.

    Slightly closer would be "Is there a class difference between iPhone and (Samsung) Galaxy users (and a few other manufacturers of high end phones)?"

    Posted 9 years ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Car-Sick Glasgow (@carsickglasgow)
    13/11/2014 18:26
    They don't have much to show off - just last year's infra and another project that isn't even built yet - but bless 'em they try #csconf2014

    "

    Posted 9 years ago #

  19. acsimpson
    Member

    I would agree with the negative comments. The cynic in me wonders if Glasgow are trying to increase the amount they can claim to have spent on cycling without touching their transport budget. They have found a pot of money which was looking for a shiny technical project and thought that this would make them look good.

    I can't imagine that many people who already use GPS to log their cycle rides will change to using it and can't see that it would offer enough to encourage new users.

    A lot cheaper than the tram but no less a waste of money.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    Hackney experience -

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=13978

    Posted 9 years ago #

  21. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Glasgow also launched its own Glasgow Cycling app a year ago to inform its cycling infrastructure planning. A spokesman for Glasgow city council confirms that it was downloaded by 1,211 users and mapped 1,393 routes, covering 9,138km. Heat maps of routes have uncovered popular and unpopular routes, plus previously unmarked shortcuts.

    "

    http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/nov/27/city-cycling-routes-app-toronto-glasgow-bikes-data

    Posted 8 years ago #

  22. drnoble
    Member

    Glasgow city council confirms that it was downloaded by 1,211 users and mapped 1,393 routes, covering 9,138km

    So 1 1/8 routes per person, at an average of 6.6km 4.1 miles per route, ie quite a short journey.

    Call me a cynic, but that looks like a lot of people using it once (or never) and deciding it is useless/not worth the effort/etc.

    Would be really interesting to know how many users have used it multiple times on different routes, and how many of those routes overlap.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  23. wee folding bike
    Member

    Never used it. It has 2/5 stars on the iTunes store but the people who wrote reviews gave it one. It doesn't seem possible to give no stars.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  24. Stephan Matthiesen
    Member

    Mapping routes is pretty pointless, but having data on start points and destinations would be very useful.

    It's one of the problems with the bus system too. So many buses go to Princes St even though many people probably don't actually want to go there as a destination but perhaps from Pilton to Sighthill. Back home they have a survey twice a year where they not only count the people on different buses, but actually go around and ask "Where did you start this journey, and where do you want to go?" It's not an app, they actually ask people and therefore get a representative sample, not just techies.

    Instead of an app that produces route heatmaps, it makes more sense to get data from planning website/app like cyclestreets to get start/end point pairs. If certain combinations of start and end points are very popular, then you know you need to build a route between them.

    Even better would be something that's independent of transport mode, like a proper representative survey, but that is far more costly than an app.

    Posted 8 years ago #

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