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< Infrastructure ~ Minneapolis using CycleTracks |
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ralphy
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 Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:21 am |
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| Secret: wants a tall bikeJoined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:51 pmPosts: 424Location: Battle Creek
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http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@publicworks/documents/images/wcms1p-094499.pdfI would join in, but; 1, I live in st paul 2, I'm already using a tracking app that offers features this doesn't. Comments?
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My bike is uglier than yours. |
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Frenchy
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| Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:47 pm |
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 Spoke TwiddlerJoined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:52 pmPosts: 173Location: Minneapolis
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Looks like this is a Met Council project, not just Minneapolis. So anyone in the Metro area can participate.
I'm going to give this a shot, if only to give the Met Council data that shows we in trail-poor Northeast ride as much as those in trail-rich south Minneapolis.
And I *think* Android phones should be able to run both this app and another tracking app simultaneously, though that would likely be rough on your phone's battery.
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Snak Shak
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| Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:34 pm |
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 Pretends the bricks at St. Anthony Main are the PaveJoined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:35 pmPosts: 2924Location: So.MPLS
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I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I like that Met Council is paying attention and collecting data to improve things. On the other hand, I have some privacy issues with this as well. Big Brother monitoring my movement around the city, etc. etc. I wonder who has access to the data and how anonymous it is. I am going to download the app and see...
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ralphy
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| Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:44 pm |
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| Secret: wants a tall bikeJoined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:51 pmPosts: 424Location: Battle Creek
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Snak Shak wrote: I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I like that Met Council is paying attention and collecting data to improve things. On the other hand, I have some privacy issues with this as well. Big Brother monitoring my movement around the city, etc. etc. I wonder who has access to the data and how anonymous it is. I am going to download the app and see... Yes, I'd thought of that as well. The press release says only general information will be collected, but email address, my home address, my work address, etc doesn't fit my definition of 'only general information'. I don't know how I feel about that.
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Snak Shak
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| Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:57 pm |
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| Pretends the bricks at St. Anthony Main are the PaveJoined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:35 pmPosts: 2924Location: So.MPLS
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Yup - it wants your zip code, email address and age but that's it. The Droid app store (whatever it's called now) has the app but it says San Francisco, not MPLS. I wonder if using it will send my data to San Fran or my zip code will tell the app to send the data to Met Council. I could find no MPLS or twin cities specific app when I searched.
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Fanatic
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| Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:16 pm |
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 Glass CrankerJoined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:14 pmPosts: 220Location: SW Minneapolis
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I got it and used it on my commute home.
It plots a dot every second or so.
You can start and stop the recording at will, so you don't have to let it track you to your front door if you don't want to.
It wasn't too hard on my battery--45 min of riding ate maybe 20%--I wasn't paying much attention.
Accuracy on par with iMapMyRide, which is to say pretty good, but not good enough to tell whether I'm on Theodore Wirth parkway or the adjoining bike path.
I'll use it every so often, but I can't see making it a daily habit unless I hear something to indicate that the data is really useful.
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Frenchy
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:19 am |
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| Spoke TwiddlerJoined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:52 pmPosts: 173Location: Minneapolis
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Snak Shak wrote: Yup - it wants your zip code, email address and age but that's it. The Droid app store (whatever it's called now) has the app but it says San Francisco, not MPLS. I wonder if using it will send my data to San Fran or my zip code will tell the app to send the data to Met Council. I could find no MPLS or twin cities specific app when I searched. My co-worker here in the newsroom was on the phone with the Met Council about this program yesterday. I'll ask him to confirm, but based on what I heard it sounds like your data is transmitted to San Francisco, who in turn reports it to Metro Transit. Which makes sense, as the SF Transit Authority has been using this for a while and thus should know how to parse the data efficiently.
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ralphy
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:53 pm |
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| Secret: wants a tall bikeJoined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:51 pmPosts: 424Location: Battle Creek
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Frenchy wrote: Snak Shak wrote: Yup - it wants your zip code, email address and age but that's it. The Droid app store (whatever it's called now) has the app but it says San Francisco, not MPLS. I wonder if using it will send my data to San Fran or my zip code will tell the app to send the data to Met Council. I could find no MPLS or twin cities specific app when I searched. My co-worker here in the newsroom was on the phone with the Met Council about this program yesterday. I'll ask him to confirm, but based on what I heard it sounds like your data is transmitted to San Francisco, who in turn reports it to Metro Transit. Which makes sense, as the SF Transit Authority has been using this for a while and thus should know how to parse the data efficiently. Which, unfortunately, brings the privacy issue even more to mind. How can the Met Council guarantee information security if the information is passing through a third party before they see it?
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Snak Shak
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:23 pm |
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| Pretends the bricks at St. Anthony Main are the PaveJoined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:35 pmPosts: 2924Location: So.MPLS
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It seems like the Met Council just kind of stealthed us on this one. For it to work, a lot of people would need to use it. For a lot of people to use the app, there needs to be PR about it before, during and after the roll-out and there needs to be something in it for the users beside that warm snuggly feeling we all get from generating data for faceless planners.
Still, I hope it's useful. I downloaded the app yesterday and totally forgot all about as I was riding around today so that's about 4 trips lost on my first day. Hopefully I'll improve on this.
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ralphy
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:09 pm |
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| Secret: wants a tall bikeJoined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:51 pmPosts: 424Location: Battle Creek
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Snak Shak wrote: It seems like the Met Council just kind of stealthed us on this one. For it to work, a lot of people would need to use it. For a lot of people to use the app, there needs to be PR about it before, during and after the roll-out and there needs to be something in it for the users beside that warm snuggly feeling we all get from generating data for faceless planners.. FWIW, I found out about it from a mailing list I joined years ago when I still lived in So Mpls. ...that I now can't find the join link to, just information and unsubscribe links; http://www.minneapolismn.gov/
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giddything
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:28 pm |
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 Arrière du pelotonJoined: Sat Apr 21, 2012 2:08 pmPosts: 523Location: Longfellow
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Frenchy
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| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:52 am |
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| Spoke TwiddlerJoined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:52 pmPosts: 173Location: Minneapolis
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Snak Shak wrote: It seems like the Met Council just kind of stealthed us on this one. For it to work, a lot of people would need to use it. For a lot of people to use the app, there needs to be PR about it before, during and after the roll-out and there needs to be something in it for the users beside that warm snuggly feeling we all get from generating data for faceless planners. Well, there will be a piece about it in the Southwest Journal and The Journal, FWIW.
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ChrisAdyNelson
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| Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:50 pm |
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 Regularly rides in ShelbyvilleJoined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:04 pmPosts: 1216Location: Wild Wild West
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Included in the email from Commuter Challenge today: Quote: Help make the region more bike-friendly
You can help make the region more bike-friendly when you use the free smartphone app called CycleTracks.
The app records your bicycle trips with the help of GPS and sends details of the routes to a centralized database. The Met Council can then use the information to improve regional transportation planning by giving planners a better understanding of routes bicyclists take. No personal information needs to be shared to use the app.
You can download the app from Google Play or the App Store. http://metrotransit.createsend1.com/t/V ... F623478121The App in Play (Google) makes it sound like it's for San Fran only; however, I have an email confirming that it is set up for the Twin Cities. I LOVE THIS IDEA! I've had the thought that cities should use Endomondo (et al) to know where people bike and focus on improve routes based on peoples real needs. I'll be using it shortly for the PM commute.
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ChrisAdyNelson
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:02 pm |
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| Regularly rides in ShelbyvilleJoined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:04 pmPosts: 1216Location: Wild Wild West
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Not sure if this addresses the concerns above... Quote: CycleTracks uses smartphone GPS support to record users' bicycle trip routes and times, and display maps of their rides, in order to help transportation planners make informed decisions about bicycle use in the community. At the end of each trip, data representing the trip purpose, route, and the date and time are sent to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) for analysis. All personally identifiable data are kept confidential.* The Authority—or another agency using CycleTracks-uses the data to create models that better predict where cyclists will ride and how land developments and transportation infrastructure will affect cycling in the community. The SFCTA developed CycleTracks to help understand the needs of cyclists, in order to more effectively prioritize cycling infrastructure investments.
*—We retain the iPhone's Unique Device Identifier (UDID) or Android phone's Device ID in order to group trip data by users. No other identifying information is collected except with opt-in permission. Anonymous data may be shared with other public agencies for planning purposes. http://www.sfcta.org/content/category/12/97/483/{I added the bold above}
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I didn't say it's your fault, I said I'm blaming you, there's a difference. |
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