Mobile fitness-tracking application Strava has launched a new service to provide governments and city planners with cycling and running data to help improve decision-making when considering development projects.

Prior to the release of the new Strava Metro service, Strava’s primary focus was on collecting data from competitive cyclists and runners using global positioning satellites.

At launch last week, the new Strava Metro service had taken data from 90 million bike rides and 24 million runs and will now help to inform decision-makers when planning new schemes.

The system sees data collated from Strava users processed to remove all personal information and structured for compatibility with classic geographical information systems (GIS) environments.

Using Metro data, departments of transportation, planners, advocacy groups and corporations would be able to make more informed and effective decisions when planning, maintaining and upgrading cycling and pedestrian corridors in towns and cities.

For example, data could be used to help identify points on routes where cyclists have difficulty working out traffic patterns, or where more cycling congestion occurs.

Developers could also use data to make safer road routes when taking into account the preferred choices of cyclists and runners, potentially making for safer cities.

The service provides high-resolution heat-maps for free, while those seeking to gain more data can license it from Strava, with pricing based on the geographical sizes requested.