Strava Segments and Safety

Strava launched in beta just over one year ago with the mission to build a platform to provide fun and motivation for avid cyclists everywhere. Though we are not done yet, we believe we have been successful in delivering on that mission with the functionality we have built in Strava to-date.

One of several features that has set Strava apart from its competitors is the ability for users to create public segments from their rides and thereby show comparisons based on efforts by all users who have ridden (or run, or hiked, etc. ) the segment, including their own subsequent efforts. We provide the platform; users create the segments and provide the rides that result in the comparisons. We get emails from users daily telling us how much they enjoy this function and that it makes Strava something they want to use and keep using.

We now have thousands of public segments in Strava from nearly every US State and from dozens of countries. Strava provides segment creation and publication as a service to its users but the content is user-generated and not edited or monitored by Strava. The basic starting point for using Strava is that safety while riding (or running, or hiking, etc.) is every user’s responsibility – which includes observing all the applicable traffic laws. Recent online discussions concerning the tragic accident on South Park Drive in Berkeley, California have made it clear to us that users would benefit from additional methods to self-regulate their behavior on Strava.

Therefore, with today’s release Strava users have the ability to eliminate comparative rankings on segments where they believe competition would be hazardous. We hope that allowing our users to share their own experience with, and knowledge of, the segments they create and ride will help everyone remember that safety should always be their first priority.

As with all new features on Strava, we are not done. We will undoubtedly refine this, and expect that Strava users everywhere will be vocal in providing suggestions for improvement.