I think it’s safe to say that Austin, Texas is one of the top Tech cities in North America….It’s also safe to say that it’s also one of the top cycling cities as well. Because of this, it’s no surprise that CycleTracks is using this city to collect bicycle data through their Smartphone application design.

What is Cycle Tracks?

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to go to Twitter to get a nice little snapshot of what a person or company is all about….so I thought I’d do this for Cycle Tracks as well.  Here is how they describe themselves on Twitter:

If you need a little more than the Twitter bio to give you details on what these guys do, let me give you the low down in a few more than 140 characters. CycleTracks is an IPhone and Android application that collects data on why and where a cyclist rides their bike.  The program was developed by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) and uses a smartphone’s GPS capabilities to track bicycle trip routes.  The only other input required from the user is to specify a purpose for each of their bicycle trips (commuting, shopping, exercise, etc).  All of this data is then sent to the SFCTA servers and added to their pile of Austin bicycle routes.  All identifiable data is kept confidential, of course.

Why Austin?

As I explained earlier, it’s pretty easy to see why Austin was determined to be the city of choice for CycleTracks to get things going, but why do they say they selected our fine city?

Austin was chosen for this project because of its strong cycling culture, its known bicycle-friendliness, and the presence of several universities including the University of Texas which makes it an ideal test environment.

Get Involved

If you live in the Austin area and would like to take part in the data collection, you still have time.  CycleTracks plans to collect data here until the end of October so get cracking if you’re into this.

To get started, download the CycleTracks application for your iPhone/Android phone using the links below. Once you have installed the application on your phone, follow these instructions from the SFTCA website about how to use the application.

For iPhone:

Download Link – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cycletracks/id338203326?mt=8 

Instructions - http://cycletracksaustin.com/cycletracks#iPhone

For Android Phone:

Download Link - https://market.android.com/details?id=org.sfcta.cycletracks&feature=search_result

Instructions - http://cycletracksaustin.com/cycletracks#Android

Other Cities

I would say it’s a safe bet that if all goes well with the Austin test site, the CycleTracks crew will be coming soon to your city.  Keep your eyes and ears open and let’s see how this form of data collection changes or improves things.

For more information on CycleTracks, visit them at http://cycletracksaustin.com/cycletracks.