Mapping the Burn with Strava Labs

Last week Google Maps Mania looked at the Strava Global Heatmap, a visualization of where Strava users most like to run and cycle. The map is one of a number of amazing map visualizations created by Strava Labs.

Strava Labs also features on its home page a Real-time Map of Strava Users. This Leaflet platform map shows the location of Strava users in real-time. As Strava users run or cycle their locations are shown on the map. Each mapped Strava user fades out on the map over 20 seconds.


Another neat Strava map is the Activity Playback Map. The Activity Playback Map allows Strava Users to check out who else was running or cycling near them, enabling them to check out who they passed whilst out exercising. The page includes links to some example maps, for example you can view an animated map showing Strava users competing in the Boston Marathon.


The Strava Slide Tool might not be of much interest to most Strava users but is a neat visualization of one of Strava's mapping algorithms. The tool allows you to draw a route polyline on a map and then view as the line is iteratively refined to optimize its alignment based on Strava's global heatmap routes.

The visualization allows you to view in real-time how a coarse input route could be refined to more accurately align to the actual route undertaken, based on Strava's huge database of routes.