City of Toronto News Release
The City of Toronto is launching a contest in which cyclists who record their cycling trips on the City’s cycling app until November 30 can win a bike or many other great prizes.
The City launched the free smartphone app, called Toronto Cycling, in May to help gather information that will help the City plan future cycling infrastructure. Since the May launch, 3,260 Toronto cyclists have downloaded the app and recorded more than 50,000 cycling trips.
“The cycling app is a very effective way for us to better understand cycling travel patterns, which will be extremely useful for planning the cycling network,” said Stephen Buckley, General Manager of Transportation Services. “It will help us determine what routes in the city are well travelled by cyclists and what linkages may be missing to make cycling trips safer, easier and more convenient. The trip information will help the City plan new routes that will be implemented over the next 10 years.”
“We have lots of cyclists and data from the Toronto-East York District,” said Daniel Egan, Manager of Cycling Infrastructure and Programs. “During this contest, we are particularly interested in having more cyclists in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke record their trips so that their cycling routes can be better represented in the data.”
Cyclists who record their trips on the City’s cycling app will be entered in a draw to win an Opus Adagio 1.0 bicycle, Bike Share memberships and many more great prizes donated by Outdoor Gear Canada Inc. The Opus Adagio 1.0 is a lightweight “urban performance” bicycle suitable for both commuting and recreational cycling in the city. Torontonians can learn more and download the app at http://bit.ly/1xh7ZYY.
The Toronto Cycling app uses the GPS (Global Positioning System) system on a smart phone to record a cyclist’s trip information, such as the route taken and the length of the trip. The app records real-time stats that include the average speed, maximum speed and distance of a trip. Besides the trip-recording function, the app includes additional features such as the location and availability of Bike Share stations in real time, road restrictions information and the location of drinking fountains in parks.
The easy-to-use app can be downloaded on all Apple and Android devices. Cyclists simply press start when they begin their trip and press “stop” when their trip is completed. Their trip information is then submitted to a database as GPS information for analysis.
All information is collected on a secure site to protect users’ privacy.
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