About this project
I started this project after getting hit by a car from behind in November, 2017. This was a very lightly traveled, but high speed limit (55mph) county road. I have ridden the road many times and know that I usually will only get passed by a handful of cars for the entire stretch of road (nearly 10 miles long). So this got me thinking how "busy" roads aren't necessarily more dangerous than nearly traffic-free roads. I wanted to start collecting data to support this hypothesis. Plus, I was just interested in knowing exactly how many cars had passed me on that road before I got hit. I also wanted to know the historical average of how many cars pass me on that road - hence, the origin of this project.
Samford University
I work at Samford University as an assistant professor because I can't stop riding my bike long enough to publish all my research and get promoted (it's been almost 20 years now!). Very limited funding has been secured for this project, so it would be great if you would make a donation to support this research or help collaborate with me to either find funding sources or write/co-author papers. Here is a PowerPoint presentation (PDF version) describing the overall architecture.
What you need to participate
In order to upload rides to this site, at a minimum you need the ConnectIQ app I wrote (see setup instructions below), a Garmin Varia Radar (either model works great), and a newer Garmin Watch or Edge device (1030, 820, or 520plus). The reason why you need a newer Garmin device is only the latest edge devices have v3.0+ of the ConnectIQ SDK, which is the version of the SDK that my app needs in order to extract the radar data. Even though you can install IQ apps on older Garmins and the Varia itself works on older Garmins, the version of the SDK embedded in those older Garmins won't allow an IQ app to read the radar data. If they ever update the older devices with a new firmware update that can run ConnectIQ v3 apps, then it should work on those Garmins as well.
No Garmin? If you have an iPhone or Android phone, check out Cadence cycling and running app, which now integrates with mybiketraffic.com.
Video review
Shane Miller, GPLama, posted a nice review and gave a run-through of the features of the app. Check it out here, and be sure to like and subscribe to his page!
More about getting hit by a car
I have gone into more detail about getting hit by a car, but the quick summary is that the driver said he didn't see me and must have ran into me without hitting his brakes. The driver told the police officer he was going 45mph, but it would be nice to have the radar data to know if that was true. It would also be nice to know how many other cars safely passed me on that road. Both of these statistics are now available because of this project.
By uploading and/or syncing rides and/or using data/visualizations from this site to make or guide any route decisions, including whether or not to ride your bike at all, you are agreeing to release mybiketraffic.com and its developers/owners/employers from all damage claims, injury claims, or claims of any kind related to your usage or other people's usage of the site or any data/visualizations from the site. DO NOT UPLOAD, SYNC, OR USE THIS SITE AT ALL IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. This message is prominently displayed because this site makes no claims that using this site will keep you safe or safer. Also, you should have no expectation of privacy when uploading rides to this site.
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