In order for our City Traffic Planners to be able to plan out our roads, paths and cycleways, it helps if they know how people are actually using those roads, paths and cycleways.  Gathering that information for cars and trucks on our roads is relatively simple, using overhead cameras and census studies for example.  But for pedestrians and cyclists its not so easy (and it is important for road safety to try to keep pedestrians and cyclists away from cars and trucks).

In a novel use of GPS data provided by users that track their walks, runs and cycles through our cities, city planners can now visualise the flows of these more difficult to track groups at different times of day.

In addition, planners have been able to locate places to create cycle paths and pedestrian bridges and see how quickly they have been adopted into peoples routes, keeping people away from traffic and making our cities safer.

Its a great use of the data we naturally create and we can feel good about our exercise routines helping to shape our cities in such a way that it makes our runs, walks and cycles safer.

Click here to read more about the project.

And click here to see the amazing maps generated by our workouts. 

Be warned, as the maps are interactive, they are addictive and you can spend hours looking at the runs and cycles people have done in your area and beyond.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

​Peter Stokes.

Without doubt, being able to take part in "challenges" or "Duels", where the Steps you log are automatically compared to those of other challenge participants, has been for many people a great motivator.

Seeing your efforts jump you up the leaderboard or having to go out again because you've been alerted that you have been knocked off the top spot adds a competitive edge that works to spur on many (but not all) people.

One of the limiting factors though has been the need for all of the challenge or duel participants to be in the same Brand's eco system, i.e. all using Fitbits or all using Jawbone or Garmin.  Indeed often the choice of device you buy and use is dictated by the devices and Brands used by your friends and family.  So you may sacrifice some features or a particular design you like just to be "part of the club".

Of course its in the manufacturers interest to keep you in their "bubble" so you'll buy their next great device, service or whatever.

But that's all about to change with the advent of inKin (​www.inkin.com).  This website links to multiple Brands devices and conveniently and graphically matches the data in a common space.  This now means I (as a Fitbit user) can seamlessly challenge a Friend who is a Garmin user.  Great stuff.

So if you are out in the cold from your friends and family because you didn't want the devices they chose, you can now join the fold.

I've signed up to give it a go and will give some feedback in a future post.  If you join up, do let me know how you get on or maybe even challenge me.

Peter Stokes.