Strava has opened applications for the third year of its Metro for Academic Researchers Program, giving university researchers a year of free access to aggregated, de-identified cycling and pedestrian mobility data. Applications close Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. PT.
A dataset already shaping city planning
The program extends a dataset already embedded in public-sector decision-making. Over 4,500 planners, agencies and officials shaping infrastructure investment worldwide already lean on Strava Metro to read commuting patterns and justify bike and pedestrian projects, and Strava says related partnerships have reached close to 1 billion people to date.
Academic validation
The program also does something less obvious for Strava’s data business. Metro’s value to cities, transport agencies and planners rests on convincing them the dataset is credible enough to base infrastructure decisions on. When academic researchers publish papers, theses and studies built on Metro data, that work functions as independent validation of the dataset itself.
SGIE reported in July that Strava has been layering coaching, navigation and retail features onto its core tracker to diversify how it turns activity data into revenue; opening Metro to academia extends that same logic to its civic-data business, trading free access now for credibility with the public agencies it sells to.
How the program works
Accepted researchers get a year of platform access, direct contact with transportation, urban planning and public health specialists, and support from Strava’s Metro team through online training and check-in sessions. A Strava committee reviews and scores applications, selects the cohort, and notifies successful applicants in November.
Since launching in 2024, the program has drawn participants from research institutions across Europe, the UK, Asia-Pacific and North America. Strava says participants have used Metro data alongside input from local planners to inform infrastructure planning in their cities.
Applications and program details are available at metro.strava.com/academics. Case studies from the program’s first two cohorts are posted on Strava’s site.
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