Global Heatmaps

  • Updated

Discover new-to-you routes and ride like a local anywhere with the Ride with GPS Heatmap. Highlighting aggregated ride data, our heatmap reveals the most popular paths. The darker the line, the more rides it has. Pop the Global Heatmap into 7 or 30 day mode to reveal what's been ridden most recently.



Access the Global Heatmap on the web and in the mobile app. Premium members unlock the ability to use the Heatmap for route planning, and in your personal ride and route libraries on the web. Take a look at your Personal Heatmap to unveil the ground you've covered on your own.

 

The Heatmap on Web

The public Ride with GPS heatmap can be viewed at ridewithgps.com/heatmap. Premium members can access the Global Heatmap in the route planner, personal ride and route libraries, and Explore.  

Toggle the Heatmap

To enable or disable the Global Heatmap in the route planner, click on the Heatmaps menu in the upper right corner of the screen. Select Global Heatmap from the dropdown menu to enable. Uncheck this to disable this view.

All Time

The All Time view has historically been our default – or classic mode. This simply shows everything that has ever been recorded – an aggregation of all publicly-logged rides. Because this is our default display, the All Time heatmap will be visible on both the web and in the mobile app. 

Last 30 Days

The 30-Day Global Heatmap is ideal for sparsely-populated regions, rural zones, and backcountry areas with less concentrated rider activity. This will give you a reliable idea of what has been ridden recently and what has not. 

Last 7 Days

The 7-Day Global Heatmap reflects the most up-to-date ride concentrations available. This option is best for cities, urban centers, and areas with high population density. 

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The Global Heatmap will display ride data from least ridden (light blue) to more popular (darker red). Look for darker areas on the heatmap to identify more popular riding areas based on our public ride data.

Use the Heatmap in the App

The Global Heatmap is available to all users, but it will be turned off by default. Enable the Heatmap overlay in the mobile app on Explore, your mobile library, the mobile route planner, and in the recording screen.

Tap the Map Options icon in the lower left corner of the map, and tap Global Heatmap.

 

Anonymously Contribute your Ride Data to the Global Heatmap

If you'd like to anonymously contribute your ride data to the Global Heatmap, as well as route recommendations and other public community resources, you can do so from your Privacy Settings page. This allows your ride data to appear on the Global Heatmap, so that other users can plan the best rides in your area.

Opt Out of Contributing to the Global Heatmap

If you don't want your rides to be anonymously shown on the Global Heatmap, you can opt out by doing the following:

1. Switch your default ride privacy to Private or Friends Only from your Privacy Settings page.

2. On that page, make sure that the option to Contribute anonymous ride data to community resources is unchecked.

 

FAQs:

  • Who can view the heatmap?
    • Anyone can view the publicly available heatmap webpage or in the mobile app. Premium users get access to the heatmap in our route planner, personal libraries, and on Explore.
  • What data was used to create the heatmap?
    • We used the most recent two years of publicly-recorded and uploaded trips from public Ride with GPS users.
  • Were private trips included in the heatmap data?
    • Private trips are not included in the heatmap data, unless you have opted in from your Privacy Settings page.
  • How were privacy zones handled?
    • All manually created privacy zones are respected. Additionally, every trip has an automatic privacy zone created at the start and end of the trip, which means that even for users who don't use privacy zones, their start and end locations are obscured to eliminate peoples' houses and other hotspots from appearing on the map.