Strava, the popular ride and run tracking app, announced the 10 global projects for its inaugural Metro for Academic Researchers Program. These innovative initiatives were chosen for their potential to drive meaningful change in communities worldwide, leveraging Strava Metro’s data to shape the future of active transportation, infrastructure, and sustainability.
Each project will use Strava Metro’s de-identified, aggregated data to develop evidence-based solutions for improving active transportation networks. Research teams will also receive ongoing support from the Strava Metro team to gain deeper insights into travel patterns, infrastructure gaps, and community needs.
A collaboration between STPP and Programs to Educate all Cyclists (PEAC), Nice Streets, Mean Streets: Mapping Transportation Accessibility in Southeast Michigan, was selected out of over 200 applications. A nonprofit advocating for transportation equity for Michiganders with intellectual disabilities, PEAC teaches students to identify safer “cognitive accessible roads” by designating them as “mean” or “nice.” The project will use Strava’s data to identify popular commuting routes, and then groups of PEAC students will visit and determine whether they are “mean” or “nice” based on their experiences walking and biking there. This will provide insight into the cognitive accessibility of high-use routes, with potential for identifying areas in need of safety upgrades. The results will assist PEAC’s advocacy efforts for improved accessibility on commonly used streets, and demonstrate PEAC students’ expertise in evaluating streets’ cognitive accessibility.
Olivia David, University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability PhD Candidate & Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program Student Researcher who will be analyzing data and writing policy memos, among other contributions shares:
I'm excited for this project as an opportunity to demonstrate how we, as academic researchers, can leverage existing data in creative ways to support our community partner organization's policy advocacy goals. It's gratifying to see a company like Strava looking for impactful ways to use their huge amounts of data, and it's great that STPP will be part of this effort. Beyond supporting transportation independence for individuals with disabilities, I also hope the project will bring attention to local policy concerns around bike and pedestrian safety more generally.