Dozens of Strava segments along The Loop have been marked as hazardous and essentially removed from the competition portion of the site.
A page for The Loop mentioned the removal on Tuesday.
Flagging a segment as hazardous is a way for a Strava user to alert others of danger. A segment may be flagged as hazardous for a number of reasons: road construction, blind corners, pedestrian congestion, intersection crossings or stoplights, among others. Though the reason for a flag may vary, when a flag is created it means that the segment is generally unsuitable for competition.
After a segment has been flagged, Strava will automatically apply certain restrictions:
Goals cannot be set on flagged segments.
Achievements (PR, KOM, etc.) are not awarded for flagged segments.
Leaderboard and rankings are removed for flagged segments, unless you agree to the hazardous segment waiver. Users will have to agree to the waiver for each hazardous segment they want to view.
The user who flagged the segments may argue the path is not an appropriate place to compete. The county certainly would agree. They issued an open letter to cyclists asking them to slow down on The Loop.
To view a segment leaderboard, a user has to agree to the hazardous segment waiver. A random flagged segment along the Rillito I viewed had a leader with an average speed on the north side of the path from Brandi Fenton Park to Campbell of more than 29 miles per hour.
What do you think? Glad the segments are gone or will you miss them?
I may not be a typical Strava user because I don’t chase KOMs and PRs, but I do enjoy looking back to see what kind of effort I was putting in compared to my previous rides and compared to everyone else who uses a particular segment, so I am disappointed that these segments have been marked as hazardous, especially since there are times when the loop is empty and it is fun to go hard when there aren’t any human obstacles. I can see where people chasing a KOM could cause a hazard, but I think that could be true on any multi-use path or trail. Ultimately Strava isn’t creating a-holes, some people (cyclists, runners, walkers, etc) just don’t seem to have regard for the other users of the paths.
Personally I think banning headphones on the loop would do more good…
I love the loop, I live on the loop, & I think it is a great idea. The portion of the loop near Brandi Fenton is full of people, and I think the Strava segments certainly encourage some cyclists to travel at unsafe speeds.
I’m an avid cyclist and occasional Strava user, but I think the user who flagged the segments is probably right. And, other segments of the Loop should also be removed from Strava’s leaderboard. I like going fast, but the Loop isn’t the best place for speed. I noticed that one section of the Julian Wash section of the loop has crazy speeds on the leaderboard–the top seven riders are averaging over 30mph– and it is a segment without clear lines of sight to see oncoming trail users. I don’t think you can consistently dodge strollers, families with kids riding bikes, or headphone wearing runners at 30mph on a narrow trail. It is literally an accident waiting to happen. Here is a link to the segment I reference: http://www.strava.com/segments/1270655
¿strava?