User-centered design is a framework of processes in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.
In short, user-centred design puts users at its core. So when city-planners want to develop smarter cities, they want to provide drivers, cyclists, runners, walkers and everyone else in between with the safest, quickest and most practical ways to get around.
Pedestrians and cyclists are difficult for transportation planners to count and map. This is beginning to change, not because of some quantum leap in surveys or sensors, but because of fitness-themed social media.
Strava, the social network for athletes, produces an annual Global Heatmap with data and graphics. The interactive map depicts more than 1 billion journeys undertaken by Strava’s millions of members, 80 percent of whom are from outside of the United States, but still with some cities and countries completely off the map. However, all of that data makes for a detailed global map of trips made on foot, bike or even nordic skis. This information is starting to be put to work by transportation planners.
The Global Heatmap provides a fairly blunt oversight of the busiest traffic corridors and popular routes, but it’s just the public face of a trove of data about how pedestrians and cyclists get around. The first iteration of the Global Heatmap yielded so many calls from planners and activists that the company parlayed that research into a data toolkit called Strava Metro. Metro data ‘enables deep analysis of cyclist and pedestrian activity including popular or avoided routes, peak commute times, intersection wait times, and origin/destination zones. Metro processes this data for compatibility with geographic information system (GIS) environments.’ Today the toolkit is used by over 100 organisations around the world, including the departments of transportation from Seattle to Queesland.
By showing complete trips, Strava data provides a much more sophisticated view of pedestrian and cycling behavior than other data sources usually available to planners. This allows planners to develop more efficient and safer routes, even encouraging citizens to get on the saddle of their bike rather than sit in a car. By replacing road and intersection designs on this data, rather than anecdotal evidence, it can help cities make their citizens healthier and their air cleaner.
However, it is not a solve-all solution. This data is coming from a social network for athletes, which would tend to attract more affluent people, so there are some black holes in the map. If we use Strava to help government plan smart cities, we have to be aware of the social equity component of what the data is telling us.
There are far more men using Strava than women, which may mean that data on ‘where women traditionally avoid at night’ may not be reflected. In many cases, the places with the fewest data points might be those most in need of better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
Additionally, there are more middle-aged people logging workouts. Somewhat unaffectionately called mamils (middle-aged men in Lycra) are exercising twice as often as those 20 years their junior, according to an analysis by Strava.
40-49 year olds put on their trainers and sweatbands and went for a jog on average 38 times last year, those aged 18-29 did so only 18 times. A similar pattern was seen for cycling, where the youngest group logged 24 rides, compared with 41 among those aged 40 to 49.
If transportation planners are to navigate these heady questions with user-centred design, it is important that they take into account all users – regardless of gender, age or whether they can buy the latest gadgets. The Heatmap is an amazing source of data, giving a really strong indication of where people are going to and from, but it is not the whole story.
onsundays.tech.blog 
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