Here’s where Metro Detroiters work out, and the cities that are the most active, but with the story told through visualized data.
How was this made? The app RunKeeper took a sample of 1.5 million runs, walks and bike rides across the country and then mapped them as traces and put them over the street grid. The colors of the tracks show the route length, glowing white hot in the places where athletes most often travel. Longer routes over 20 miles render yellow, while shorter workouts range from cool blues to hot pink.
It also gives you a sample (though admittedly a somewhat limited sample because it is only users of the RunKeeper application on iOS and Android) of what areas of town have active folks, where those active folks are working out, and and how long their workouts are.
Greater Downtown Detroit and Belle Isle is the center of almost all activity for the City of Detroit proper.
Royal Oak, Birmingham and Ferndale are definitely hotspots in Oakland County, but the county is not one story. Activity drops off very quickly when you hit Southfield, Madison Heights, Hazel Park and Oak Park.
The east side is a stark contrast, and one you would expect between the Grosse Pointes and Detroit.
Downtown Plymouth is a relative hotspot.
Activity near M-53 (Van Dyke) and M-59 (Hall Road) really centers around Dodge and Clinton River Park.
For comparison, although it’s slightly out of the tri-county area, we added Ann Arbor.
Do you want to play with the map yourself and check out your neighborhood? How about other cities? We’ve embedded it below.
