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Strava Insights points to run/cycle trends in 12 key cities

Strava Insights banner

Strava, the social network for athletes, has launched Strava Insights, an immersive website that highlights interesting running and cycling data from 12 key cities around the world.

London is one of the cities to be included on the platform and the data reveals that over 10 million run and cycle activities have been logged in London over the last 12 months – the most active city for cycling in the world on Strava.

The new Insights site from Strava also explores the habits of run and cycle commuters around the world and reveals that 9,896 run and cycle commutes in London are uploaded to Strava every single day.

Cycle commuting
Strava Insights also reveals cycling commuting habits across the 12 cities, from average distance per commute to the most popular day.

The data shows that 8,639 London cycling commutes are logged on Strava every single day and Tuesday is the most popular day to take to the saddle. An average London cycle commute is 15km in length, but this distance varies greatly across the 12 cities.

New York cyclists have the shortest average distance, at 14.1km, and Milan cyclists have the longest commute, with an impressive average distance of 31.9km – over the twice the length of an average London commute.

City Average Distance Favourite Day
London 15km Tuesday
Milan 31.9km Thursday
Berlin 16.6km Wednesday
Paris 16.8km Wednesday
Barcelona 27.4km Thursday
Amsterdam 26.5km Wednesday
San Fran 15.8km Tuesday
Sao Paulo 17.4km Tuesday
Sydney 17.7km Tuesday
New York 14.1km Wednesday
Los Angeles 19.6km Tuesday
Melbourne 17.6km Tuesday

Run commuting
1,257 run commutes are logged every day in London. The average distance of a London run commute is 7.2km, and the most popular day for London runners to lace up is Tuesday. The average run commute distance is pretty similar around the globe, with a difference of only 1.5km across the 12 cities.

San Francisco has the shortest commute at 7km, and the longest, Paris, appears to have the furthest ground to cover, with an average distance of 8.6km logged daily.

City Average Distance Favourite Day
London 7.2km Tuesday
Milan 7.8km Tuesday
Berlin 8.5km Tuesday
Paris 8.6km Tuesday
Barcelona 7.8km Tuesday
Amsterdam 8.0km Tuesday
San Fran 7.0km Tuesday
Sao Paulo 7.2km Wednesday
Sydney 7.3km Tuesday
New York 7.1km Tuesday
Los Angeles 7.2km Tuesday
Melbourne 7.2km Tuesday

City cycling
Over the past year a staggering 21 million cycling activities have been logged on Strava across the 12 key cities. The most active single day for cycling in London was Wednesday 13 May, with 36,928 rides recorded on this date.

The average distance of a London ride is 25.9km with an average speed of 22.5km/h and average elevation of 196.3m.

And the rest of the world? With a nice and flat cycle network, Amsterdam clocked the fastest average speed per ride with 25.6km/hr; Milan cyclists ride the longest, with an average ride length of 54.2km per ride; and Barcelona has the hilliest terrain, with cyclists climbing on average 771.5 metres per ride.

London sees 46% of all cycle activities happen within the commute windows of 7am – 9am and 5pm – 7pm. Sydney cyclists are the early-birds with 45% of rides starting between 05:00 and 08:00 and São Paulo the night owls, with 9% of rides starting in the evening, the highest of any city.

City Average

Speed per ride

Average

Distance per ride

Average Elevation Gained per ride
London 22.5km/h 25.9km 196.3m
Milan 24.2 km/h 54.2km 656.8m
Berlin 23.6km/h 31.8km 150.4m
Paris 23.7km/h 37.7km 272.8m
Barcelona 19.6km/h 41.7km 771.5m
Amsterdam 25.6km/h 43.9km 97m
San Fran 20.8km/h 29.7km 379.2m
Sao Paulo 19.1km/h 31.9km 376.2m
Sydney 23.1km/h 31.7km 383.8m
New York 21.7km/h 28km 208.8m
Los Angeles 21km/h 33.5km 403.7m
Melbourne 23.8km/h 31.7km 277.7m

City running
London logged over three million runs in the last 12 months – this is over double the runs logged for San Francisco, who come in second with 1,304,270 runs recorded. The average London run is calculated at 7.7km, with an average elevation of 62.2m and average pace of 5:36/km.

Paris is the fastest city, with runners recording an average pace of 5:33/km; this is followed by London in second (5:36/km) and Berlin in third (5:42/km).

And the rest of the world? Paris is the fastest city, with runners recording an average pace of 5:33/km, they also run the longest with an average distance of 10km per run. Barcelona runners once again have the toughest terrain with an average run including an average of 212.4 m of climbing.

City Average

Pace per run

Average

Distance per run

Average Elevation Gained per run
London 5:36/km 7.7km 62.2m
Milan 5:43/km 9.5km 100.1m
Berlin 5:42/km 9.3km 41.6m
Paris 5:33/km 10km 90.8m
Barcelona 6:01/km 9.5km 212.4m
Amsterdam 5:47/km 8.3km 23.7m
San Fran 6:05/km 8km 102.5m
Sao Paulo 6:40/km 7.8km 88.5m
Sydney 5:56/km 7.5km 117m
New York 5:45/km 8.1km 59.2m
Los Angeles 6:29/km 7.6km 113.3m
Melbourne 5:42/km 7.5km 84.3m

Strava Insights
Strava has a wealth of data generated by its athletic community since 2009. Today, this dataset grows by over five million activities per week and comprises of nearly a trillion GPS data points.

As it stands, over 30 million activities have been uploaded in the last year across these 12 cities. This data collection will be refreshed each week and gives Strava insight into the habits of runners and cyclists in London and around the world.

“Strava Insights is the culmination of analysing billions of GPS data points and millions of athlete activities, giving never-seen-before insight into cycling and running behaviours in 12 key global cities,” said Davis Kitchel, co-Founder of Strava and Strava Geo Lead.

“We want to give our millions of athletes a fascinating view of how their own activities compare with their fellow community members both near and far.”

insights.strava.com
www.strava.com