What problem is Cycling Guide solving?

Published by Mark Connolly on September 7, 2023September 7, 2023

There’s an important question that we like to keep in mind for our Cycling Guide mobile app. “What problem is Cycling Guide solving?” 

We’re focussed on enabling cyclists to get from their starting point to their destination using the best available low-stress, cycling-centric routes. We believe that these routes are just what’s needed for people who want to cycle more in their daily lives but lack the experience, knowledge, or confidence to do so comfortably. And we believe that’s a large group of people. We’ve certainly encountered enough of them ourselves to know that they’re out there. 

More importantly, though, there’s research that confirms it.

For example, back in 2009 Roger Geller, the Bicycle Coordinator for the City of Portland, Oregon, wanted to categorize people based on what kind of cycling they did. This was in support of improving the cycling experience in the city. He approached this categorization from a very specific point of view: How comfortable do people feel when they’re cycling? The paper that he wrote is well worth reading to see how he arrived at his four types:

• “Strong and the Fearless” — Very comfortable without bike lanes
• “Enthused and the Confident” — Very comfortable with bike lanes
• “Interested but Concerned” — Not very comfortable, interested in biking more
• “No Way No How” — that is, non riders

Crucially, Geller’s categorization has been examined closely and validated through research by Jennifer Dill and Nathan McNeil, published in separate papers in 2013 (focused on Portland) and 2016 (national level). And what did they conclude?

“We found that the distribution was remarkably close to Geller’s estimate: 60% of adults in the city and 56% in the region fell into the Interested but Concerned category. In 2015, we replicated the survey, though using an abbreviated version, in a sample of adults in the 50 largest metro regions in the U.S. The results were pretty similar.”

That’s a large percentage of the population who would like to cycle more than they do now. And those are the people that we believe will get the most out of our Cycling Guide mobile app, following low-stress, cycling-friendly routes to get around. But what we’ve experienced and seen with Cycling Guide is that even people with plenty of cycling experience are discovering ways to get around on their bikes that they just didn’t know about.

Of course, there are many apps out in the world for getting or creating cycling routes. For example, Strava is an app/service that’s aimed at athletes who bike, or run, or engage in other physical activities. Another is Ride with GPS, which promises to “make it easy to map, analyze, record, and share your bike rides”. And, of course there are general purpose mapping/directions apps from Google (“Google Maps – Transit & Food”) and Apple (“Apple Maps”). But our focus on low-stress, cycling-friendly routes is what will get more people cycling regularly. And by the way, while currently we only provide routes in Waterloo Region and Guelph, Ontario, Canada, we do intend to increase the geographic coverage for Cycling Guide.

The problem of helping people use their bikes more often isn’t all that we hope to solve, though. A more all-encompassing problem is climate change and the role of vehicles in emitting greenhouse gasses and other pollutants. As well, the health of people who aren’t active enough in their daily lives is an important problem that needs attention.

And in support of all these problems we aim to reduce the number of car trips that people take, by replacing them with bike trips. We’ll talk about the climate and health problems in future posts!