Hains Pt strava segment hazardous?!

[GuyContinental]

Open a support ticket- they will unflag it.

A friend from San Fran told me that there is an anti-strava movement where the main tactic is to flag ever route in sight. Could be something similar here.

[vvill]

The issue is more that some segments (including this one) are so short that a large portion of the recorded times will be inaccurate, so people want to flag the segment as unreliable/meaningless. As there’s no way to do so in Strava, they’ll use the only flag there is (“hazardous”).

I have tried two different GPSes for the same ride and gotten recorded times differing by 2-3 seconds on segments around 3:00 in length. So for segments < 10 seconds you can end up with people on the leaderboard listed as averaging 100mph.

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 49960 wrote:

I got my first trophy on HP tonight and was looking forward to increasing my standing; however, someone has declared that segment “hazardous”. On HP!?! Seriously? I suspect this person will declare the entire loop hazardous.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2745[/ATTACH]

Since it’s marked hazardous the segment is hidden from searches. Do you have the direct URL to it?

[vvill]

http://app.strava.com/segments/3910963

Less than 0.07 mi

[Subby]

Someone just flagged Gravelly Point Northbound Sprint as hazardous. What the heck? I’ve never seen an issue there – not even close.

http://app.strava.com/segments/1466970

[GuyContinental]

Never mind, didn’t realize that the segment was so short- IMO they really need to cap segments at .25 miles to avoid the data problems (I’d also be a fan of killing net downhill segments but that’s a totally different topic)

[Tim Kelley]

@Subby 49973 wrote:

Someone just flagged Gravelly Point Northbound Sprint as hazardous. What the heck? I’ve never seen an issue there – not even close.

http://app.strava.com/segments/1466970

I could see pedestrians and tourists getting in the way and making MUP segments unsafe…

[Tim Kelley]

@GuyContinental 49974 wrote:

Never mind, didn’t realize that the segment was so short- IMO they really need to cap segments at .25 miles to avoid the data problems (I’d also be a fan of killing net downhill segments but that’s a totally different topic)

What about major descents? Like coming off of a mountain ridge or doing downhill mountain biking?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Subby 49973 wrote:

Someone just flagged Gravelly Point Northbound Sprint as hazardous. What the heck? I’ve never seen an issue there – not even close.

http://app.strava.com/segments/1466970

This one I can understand actually. So many shenanigans on this stretch. And it’s pretty evenly spread among commuters, ELITEs, CaBis, etc. On weekday mornings it’s pretty empty, but in the afternoons and weekends, there are lot of families and such meandering along. And since it comes after the parking/picnic area, all the cyclists get bunched up and get really antsy to pass, even when it’s totally inappropriate to do so.

While I certainly don’t think all MUP segments should be flagged, I wouldn’t be upset if Strava somehow regulated or more clostely scrutinized them. One thing I like about Strava is that it gives me ideas for where to ride on the streets so I can get away from the trails. If I see that someone did a route in an area I haven’t ridden before, I’m more likely to explore that area, since I can see where the more bike-friendly streets are, where the hills are, shortcuts, etc…

[GuyContinental]

@Tim Kelley 49976 wrote:

What about major descents? Like coming off of a mountain ridge or doing downhill mountain biking?

MTB is notorious for bad segments (mountains & trees = bad signals) and Freds are getting dead doing KOM descents (exhibit A- Kim Flint). I can’t think of a single local descent where what’s *possible* on a bike and nears KOM territory isn’t way outside of the posted speed limit. So yeah, “KOM” in my book has always been about climbing, maybe sprinting.

Respectfully, you as a local (and legit) KOM killer have a very different user experience/objective than many of us. For me, I wish that Strava would pivot a bit from the 1%er KOM obsession and more towards community building (ride matching, grassroots competition tracking- e.g. BAFS) and information sharing/building (segment owners/”mayors”) and credibility (durable, non KOM accomplishments). The KOM plays a great aspirational role but is becoming less and less what it’s about for me.

[KLizotte]

@vvill 49967 wrote:

The issue is more that some segments (including this one) are so short that a large portion of the recorded times will be inaccurate, so people want to flag the segment as unreliable/meaningless. As there’s no way to do so in Strava, they’ll use the only flag there is (“hazardous”).

I have tried two different GPSes for the same ride and gotten recorded times differing by 2-3 seconds on segments around 3:00 in length. So for segments < 10 seconds you can end up with people on the leaderboard listed as averaging 100mph.

That probably explains the top women on this segment having clocked just a hair over 40 mph.

[Subby]

I guess I am just surprised that something like Gravelly Pt. is considered dangerous when you have completely clear lines of sight both ways. It’s actually one of the few MUP segments on my commute where there isn’t a blind turn or hill somewhere. There are even bail-outs on both sides of the path if someone goes full idiot. I would also be willing to bet that marking that segment hazardous does absolutely zero in reducing a-hole behavior there.

I mean really, you could make case for marking every segment hazardous. Heck, last week I fell over in front of my house while checking the mail (note to self: double unclip while checking the mail).

[Tim Kelley]

@Subby 50004 wrote:

I guess I am just surprised that something like Gravelly Pt. is considered dangerous when you have completely clear lines of sight both ways. It’s actually one of the few MUP segments on my commute where there isn’t a blind turn or hill somewhere. There are even bail-outs on both sides of the path if someone goes full idiot. I would also be willing to bet that marking that segment hazardous does absolutely zero in reducing a-hole behavior there.

I mean really, you could make case for marking every segment hazardous. Heck, last week I fell over in front of my house while checking the mail (note to self: double unclip while checking the mail).

Ever been there on a nice weekend spring day? You can barely maintain an 8 mph average weaving through traffic, much less a 28mph average.

[jabberwocky]

I’ve always been amazed at the number of segments people create on MUPs. I ride around Reston and Great Falls all the time; my road rides might have half a dozen Strava segments. But go for a spin out Leesburg on the W&OD and I’ll come home and see like 80 freaking segments. :confused: There is almost no portion of the W&OD that doesn’t have like 3 overlapping segments going at a time. Who creates these things?!

[creadinger]

@Subby 50004 wrote:

Heck, last week I fell over in front of my house while checking the mail (note to self: double unclip while checking the mail).

Did you at least get the KOM for the mail checking segment?

@GuyContinental 49987 wrote:

So yeah, “KOM” in my book has always been about climbing, maybe sprinting.

I don’t have the body to compete for strava top 10s climbing. So just because idiots do stupid things you think all downhill segments should be banned? For big guys like myself competing on fun downhill or flat segments is my only chance to get on the leaderboard. I’m no daredevil and I would never risk a crash and do something stupid just for strava cred, but knowing how I fare among others is really interesting. Right now I’m 1 second off a three-way tie for KOM on a mostly downhill segment in SE. It’s a wide road, mostly straight, no intersections = very low risk. What is the harm?

I wish there were wattage top 10s – I might have something there!

[Author]

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