Changes in the Representativeness of Strava Bicycling Data during COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 prompted a large global increase in Strava app use that could have implications for the representativeness of Strava bicycling data. We evaluated change in Strava representation of the general bicycling population from 2019 to 2020 by correlating Strava to counts of all bicyclists in Vancouver and Victoria, Canada. Strava data became more representative during COVID-19 lockdowns, likely because more bicycling activities were logged on the app. Age and gender bias in Strava data decreased and demographics of app users became more representative of the general population. For cities looking to increase Strava data reliability we suggest a benchmark Strava usage rate of ~7% of the total bicycle volumes.