31 March 2021 - On the internet, you’ll find many articles that discuss the theoretical effect of wind on cycling speed (plus articles on wind tunnel experiments, often paid for by companies that sell aerodynamic jerseys). But what about actual rides? And what’s the effect of crosswinds? I did an exploratory analysis of about 125 rides around the Ronde Hoep, a polder to the south of Amsterdam.

10 June 2018 - Strava is a popular app to record bicycle rides. For some years, the company has been trying to sell its data to local governments for traffic planning. NDW, a platform of Dutch governments including the city of Amsterdam, has bought six months’ worth of Strava data to give it a try.

12 April 2015 - The other day I posted an article about using Strava tweets to analyse road cycling patterns. I plan to do some more analysis on this but first I wanted to take another look at the time at which tweets are posted. Below is a chart that shows the number of Strava tweets per hour of the day.

6 April 2015 - A recent report by traffic research institute SWOV analyses accidents reported by cyclists on racing bikes in the Netherlands. Among other things, the data show an early summer dip in accidents: 53 in May, 38 in June and 51 in August. A bit of googling revealed this is a common phenomenon, although the dip appears to occur earlier than elsewhere (cf this analysis of cycling accidents in Montréal).

22 April 2014 - The number of wielrenners (cyclists on racing bikes) treated at Dutch emergency departments has doubled since 2010, according to a study published today. Among a range of possible explanations the authors mention the popularity of apps like Strava: