2015 Strava Insights Show Cycling and Running Landscape in the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO (January 4, 2016) — Strava, the social network for athletes, has published its annual End of Year Insights for 2015. Comprising of millions of individual runs and rides, the data offers unique insight into the habits and behavior of cyclists and runners in the United States. The data reveals that in 2015, a staggering 5.3 activities were uploaded and shared on the social network every second. Such an immense depth of data allows documentation and analysis of Strava’s growth in the world of cycling and running in the United States, while also providing direct comparison with the Strava community on a global scale.

Global Cycling

Across Strava’s global platform, cyclists shared a total of 115,788,472 rides in 2015, accruing a total of 2,591,134,087 miles—almost enough for a one-way trip to Neptune. Strava’s cyclists together accumulated 133 billion vertical feet in elevation gain. Sunday, June 7 was the most popular day for cycling.

U.S. Cycling

Cycling uploads on Strava continue to grow and grow as riders in the U.S. logged 26,320,103 individual rides throughout the year, logging 539,112,239 miles along the way. Saturday, July 11 proved to be the year’s most popular day for a ride. From the hills of Vermont to the high Rockies of Colorado, riders in the U.S. climbed an astonishing 25.6 billion vertical feet.

For average distance, men recorded 23 miles for each ride, while women averaged 20 miles. The average ride time was yet another significant difference, as the men’s 1:54:00 put them in the saddle for longer than the women, who registered 1:38:00 in comparison. Women recorded an average speed of 12.7 mph for an individual ride, with men registering 14.6 mph.

Not known as a traditional cycling state, Louisiana emerged as surprisingly the fastest state, with an average speed of 15.2 mph, joined by flatland Florida atop the ranking for longest average ride with 24.2 miles. Also surprisingly, Vermont topped Colorado and California as the biggest climbers, with 1,460 vertical feet gained per ride.

Strava also revealed that California was the most active state in the U.S., with 7,172,721 rides logged, a considerable margin of difference over its nearest rival, Colorado, where they totaled 1,465,414. Sausalito, California, was home to the most popular segment in the U.S. in 2015, with 15,327 attempts on the “7-11 Bump.”

Bike Commuting

For many Strava members, commuting is a large part of their daily routine, with an average of 95,878 rides recorded as commutes to and from work every week. A pacey average of 15.0 mph ensured riders made it in on time, tackling an average 10.5 miles door-to-door. Winter was an unappealing affair for many, axing commuter activity by 63.3 percent as people returned to more comfortable methods of transport.

The remote reaches of Montana provided the hilliest terrain, averaging 403 vertical feet of elevation gain per run, beating out its neighbor to the south, Wyoming, by 10 feet. On the flip side, Louisiana averaged just 26 vertical feet per run, for flattest in the country.