Cycling Visionaries Awards - Project Details

CYCLODEO: Virtual Bike Rides

CYCLODEO is a website that allows you to take ‘virtual’ bike rides by replaying ‘real’ ones created and shared by other cyclists all around the world. HD videos recorded by the cycling community are synchronized with the corresponding GPS tracks and placed on a map. With this video documentation, visitors can ‘feel’ via their web browser the experience of a cyclist on a particular route.

Route safety is one of the main problems that urban cyclists have to deal with every single day. Understandably, it is also one of the top reasons why so many citizens are afraid to ride their bicycles. Instead a majority prefer to use their car even for short distances. Cyclodeo helps address this issue by allowing anyone to see exactly what street conditions they might encounter on a particular ride. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures.

When a ‘Cyclodeo ride’ is being replayed, a moving mark is highlighted on the map to indicate the current location of the viewed video. Since each section of the video is geo-coded, you can click anywhere on the cycling track to visualize a specific location from a cyclist’s perspective. For each route, statistics are included such as duration, average speed, elevation and distance. It adds up to a pretty solid picture of what a bike trip will be like before you leave the house.

Cyclists have the opportunity to visually share their ride experience. Authorities have the chance to learn from their visual feedback and most important, to take appropriate actions accordingly. In an increasingly bicycle-focused world, everyone can be inspired by the cycling successes achieved in cities that heavily invested in cycling over the years.

Have you ever dreamt of testing some of best cycling networks in the world?
It is now possible to experience, compare and learn from the state of the art in Eindhoven, Helmond and Copenhagen. Namely more than 200 km of bicycle route are already available from the comfort of your home. To do so, just follow the links related to this project some of which are reproduced below:

Copenhagen: http://copenhagen.cyclodeo.com
Helmond and Eindhoven: http://sre.cyclodeo.com

BONUS

New York: http://newyork.cyclodeo.com
Nijmegen: http://cyclodeo.com/watch?ride=148
Vancouver: http://cyclodeo.com/watch?ride=272
Vienna: http://cyclodeo.com/watch?ride=416