Strava founder and CEO insists company encourages responsible riding

A lot of Strava fans/apologists on here, but I guess that's the nature of the site.

Getting to work is not, and shouldn't be, a race. Sure, get some pace up on a clear straight but not through a congested part of town in the rush hour.

How would people feel if drivers were trying to get a best time and beat other drivers into town. The analogy doesn't hold up because it's not possible to drive in the same way that Lucas Brunelle & co cycle. I bet he could get some good times on urban Strava segments, but personally I wouldn't be impressed.

The world seems to be moving further away from personal responsibility and the 'where there's blame, there's a claim' culture, which sickens me frankly. Blaming strava for the irresponsible (or downright stupid) behaviour of a user is disingenious to me. Strava does not make me go out and jump red lights, ride the wrong side of the road - it doesn't make anyone, nor does it encourage anyone to do so. Sure it fosters a sort of competitive spirit and makes training the same routes more fun - trying to better my time up a climb i regularly ride makes me put the effort in and the element of competition (real, online whatever) makes that easier to do. But Lets face it, if you are stupid enough to go barrelling down a crowded road and through 3 red lights to try and 'win' a segment or whatever then you are a funkin idiot, Strava can't change that.

Strava - Encouraging people to cut corners on MTB trails and ruining them since whenever.

Ducci wrote:

Random thought. So, do car manufacturers get sued for providing vehicles that are capable of speeds far in excess of the permitted maximum? No, individual drivers are prosecuted for the speeding offence. If riders choose to run red lights etc that's their lookout.

Quite. I can understand a car having say, 100mph top speed despite the legal limit being 70mph (here) because it gives a little leeway if you need to overtake on the motorway for safety reasons. But why is a car allowed to have a 150 or 200mph capability?

I had Strava for a little while last year when I bought a smart phone, and I even got a Garmin Edge 800 which has been used about 3 times (it's for sale if anyone's interested) but I quickly got spooked about people knowing where I ride and things as it would show what my commute to and from work was each day, and you know those stories about gangs lying in wait etc.

All I really wanted the App for was to personally track my own goals and things, where nobody else can see my times or rides. So if anyone knows how I can do that I'd be much appreciated.

Log in to connect then go

[your username at the top] > settings > privacy

set "Who can see your new activities?" to "only me"

et la

you can do it in strava too but i think you need to select 'private' against each new activity when you upload it.

alternatively, log in, go to

[your username at the top] > settings > privacy

click 'enhanced privacy mode' and turn it on

then your rides are only available to your followers. so if you don't approve any, no-one will see your rides

Cheers Dave, I'll give it a go.

I'm one of those Strava apologists, simply because Strava was a big part of getting me into cycling.

I'd been commuting for years, ruining a perfectly good Allez whilst getting burnt out running/weight training; was looking a new challenge without knowing it. A mate in work turned me on to Strava last year as a way of tracking data, and I was hooked.

I'm now at the point where I've been out on club rides, looking at an A4 licence and have discovered an ability for suffering (first club run was 75 miles at 18mph - went out with the A group, and held my own on the sprints/hills). I've also racked up a few KOMs (quite a few where there are over 200 others listed on the segment) and it makes the commute a lot more fun.

Like everything in life, common sense rules. Strava - great training tool. People who jump lights to take a segment - knobs.

In summary.........
If you want to race do it properly, posting times over dubious "segments" is not racing. It might be fun to see how well you can do, but that's it.
Riding in a reasonable way is everyone's responsibility. I have a moto and car both of which can travel at over 2ookph, which does not mean that there is a need to use that performance, and so they are always performing well within capability.
If people want to run red lights and generally ride like lunatics with a suicide wish, they will, Strava or not. But possibly the application might be seen as encouraging some of the sillier to do dangerous things just to get their name on a website. Please, it's not important, staying alive and helping the image of the sport is important.
All it takes is a bit of common sense, which at times can seem to be in short supply in a culture where no-one is ever responsible for what they do, it must be someone else's fault for "encouraging" them.
"Where there's blame there's a claim" has a lot to answer for.
Looked at from a mature stage of life, you could just think the world is a bit crazy!

Strava is surely one of the greatest recent cycling innovations & its free. Never mind the leader boards, if you've had a Garmin for a few years & cycle the same routes on a regular basis... you've built an effective & searchable record of your training & fitness, comparison between different bikes over the same route etc.

Whether you agree with me or not, please don't mess with it or let the tabloid type Press build a story which isn't there !

Ultimately, it all comes down to personal responsibility. I’m a self confessed Strava lover but I put my safety and those in my environment above any PRs or KOMs attempts.

Perhaps I am in a minority but I use Strava to measure my performance on segments against my previous times. I only ‘race’ on segments, and for that matter create segments, that are safe e.g. if there is a traffic light half way along a road, then the segment ends before the traffic light. Any other segments intersected by a junction, I don’t bother with. It’s just not worth the risk and in my view is plain common sense.

Does Strava encourage bad behaviour? Of course not. Unfortunately, there are idiots everywhere. Some happen to cycle, some cycle with Strava. It’s up to us all to take personal responsibility and ride sensibly and safely.

You know I saw some chap jump a red light on his fixie the other day. No Garmin or other device. Just did it because he had no regard for the laws of the land....seems like people do these things with or without Strava....

"I spend no time looking where I stand on the leader boards - I look at how I am doing relative to my previous performances ... You realise that there is always going to be somebody faster than you. Surely you weren't thinking you were the fastest cyclist in your neighbourhood."

With the best will in the world, that's utter bollocks, isn't it? The leader boards exist, so to imply that responsible riders don't bother with them is to imply that there is at least a little irresponsibility in using them, and this in turn implies a little irresponsibility in providing them as a feature on the site. And to say "there's always going to be someone faster" is just bonkers.

"Surely if these people are going to criticize/sue Strava then the same can be said of MapMayTracks, Endomondo and Garmin Connect all of which work in a similar manner."

AFAIK none of those use segmenting with leader boards for outright speed over that segment, so they're quite different.

"So, do car manufacturers get sued for providing vehicles that are capable of speeds far in excess of the permitted maximum?"

That's not really a valid analogy - that would be analogous to suing Trek or Specialized or whoever for building a bicycle with no speed limiter.

A valid analogy would be a website that had leaderboards for people driving from A to B as quickly as possible. Which I'm sure would be seen as outrageous by cyclists, equestrians and other road safety campaigners.

For all that I've said above I don't think Strava is culpable as such, but I do think it's a little hypocritical in what it does (promoting competitive speed) and how it presents itself (promoting responsible riding). For the vast majority of users there's no issue, but I don't think it would be unfair to say that in the cases of a very few individuals it would be the tipping point into behaviour that they might not otherwise undertake. More than anything I think cases like these just some curious questions at the thin end of a wedge: as above, what would we say if there was a similar site for drivers?

To my mind it would make a world of sense to simply filter the segments such that the public leader boards included only climbs, not flat or downhill segments, because they're all about fitness and very unlikely to result in reckless riding - but then what do I know.

Aren't USA company CEOs required by law to maximise the financial worth of their company?

So a CEO saying their company is innocent is about as useful as a serial killer's mom as a character witness.

Strava**hole!

tinfoil hat for mercuryone...

So if Strava removed the KOM feature would that save it from the abuse ? I mean after that it would just be a recording system that you could compare your times against, perhaps that pleases most people ?

I for one have never got anywhere near a KOM, I'm too fat to go up quickly and too scared to go down quickly, however I do like comparing myself against what my friends are doing, so for me the KOM has no value anyway, but I guess some people its their main goal.

I'm pretty sure I saw people racing bikes on public roads before Strava came out.

It's sad that that there is so much 'blame and claim' and not enough personal responsibility in today's society.

There will always be sad muppets who blast down the local pan flat shared use path Strava or no Strava (I hate the term cycle path 'cos that makes them sound like cyclists have exclusive use). If there was no Strava they would just come up with something else to justify riding like a cretin.

What a bunch of sado's if you want to race why not do it properly and not in a virtual world. Sad bunch of wan@ers!!!!

I think if Strava had any sense, they'd block any records set within metro areas. Get out on the road, fine, but in areas full of people, crossings, lights, it's mad that people are out there trying to get KOMs and PBs.

Strava as a training app is good, but as a feature that gets in the way of a ride then it's not so good, although I suspect many of us use GPS devices to monitor speed/heart rate/record ride details without it causing any unnecessary sprinting for imaginary awards. The ability to compare your ride with another person is the issue here, and some people are more 'competitive' than others, it's perhaps a flaw in human psyche that makes us like that, which is also why strava is so popular, it allows us to indulge in competition without even meeting your competitors.

But even without strava, people will compete against the clock or their previous effort, Garmin GPS devices offer exactly this feature.

There's nothing wrong with trying to achieve a good average speed along a road where your speed with respect to other road users is trivial, however in many situations people have to make sure that their heads aren't getting in the way of riding carefully and safely.

It comes down to responsibly. Strava isn't making anyone use their app. It's choice and accountability. Use wisely.

Strava makes no money from me, not sure how they do make $ really. KOMs are fine, but I dont see the point in folk creating segments in towns and cities with traffic lights and stuff, bit silly really. The personal challenge is what attracts most people I think, see if you are improving at all etc.

No Strava doesn't cause you to ride dangerously - but it does encourage competition on sometimes busy roads which is dangerous.

I race and I train hard but I'm not daft enought to tackle records set by people I don't know and who are half my age. I was out a couple of weeks ago and some bloke came baiting past trying to beat the record on a stretch of road. He virtually collapsed over the line and we found out coming by him that he was only on a 15 mile ride. Lonely, sad and futile behaviour. That's not what cycling's about.

Want competition? Support your local club and race on the road or track rather than racing over the web and giving your details to Strava to send on to marketing firms.

This Strava bloke is making a fortune from people risking their lives to feel better about themselves. I hope Strava's a fad like air ionizers and bidets. Remember them?