We’re excited to announce a wonderful new milestone! Our Cycling Guide mobile app is now available for use in London, Ontario, following an extended period of beta testing with people there who like to cycle. As someone with family in London, I’m especially happy that people there will have access to the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes to get where they want to go.

We worked closely with the good people at London Cycle Link to reach this milestone. It’s an organization with years of advocacy work to its credit, and the people there bring a deep understanding of the needs of people who cycle in the city: “We help Londoners ride more. We do this by building skills and confidence, advocating for safe streets and paths, and fostering a thriving cycling culture.”

And there’s been welcome financial support as well! The City of London is our Platinum sponsor in London, and The Biking Lawyer is our Gold Sponsor. (Please get in touch if you’re interested in sponsoring Cycling Guide in London or any of our other regions!)

Brian Shilton Chair of the  Board of Directors at London Cycle Link, is enthusiastic about cycling in London.

With the beautiful trails along the Thames river and improvements in London’s cycling infrastructure, many Londoners are choosing to use their bicycle to move around. London Cycle Link wants to Help Londoners Ride More by bringing the Cycling Guide mobile app to London. Cycling Guide will help Londoners find the lowest -stress  routes and encourage even more people to discover the joy and freedom of cycling!

And Molly Miksa, Transportation Demand Management Coordinator for the City of London, has this to say:

I bike regularly, so my regular routes are pretty well set in my mind. When I tested out Cycling Guide, I expected it to confirm my standard course. What surprised me was that the app suggested a low-stress shortcut through my neighbourhood that I hadn’t been aware of!

We’re working hard at the City of London to improve cycling infrastructure and supports, and we’re excited for more people to start riding bikes. We hope that Cycling Guide will be a tool for people to use, that will ease them into trying out a mode of transportation that is healthy, sustainable and fun – and do it safely and comfortably.

Here at Cycling Guide Foundation we feel great about making it easy for people in London to cycle around the city using the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes.

Want to try Cycling Guide in London? Get the app now for Android or iPhone. 

Happy cycling! 😀🚴🏼‍♀️❤️

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’re excited to announce that our free Cycling Guide mobile app is now available to provide the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

This milestone follows an extended period of beta testing with people there who like to cycle. We were delighted to work with the great folks at Saskatoon Cycles to make this happen, and we couldn’t be happier with the results! As they put it on their website, “Our mission is to advocate for a city where year-round cycling is actually safe and convenient for people of all ages.” And Cycling Guide helps them deliver on that mission.

Gordon Holtslander is the Chair of Saskatoon Cycles, and has worked closely with us on this project  to make Cycling Guide a success in his city. He has this to say about Cycling Guide in Saskatoon:

Saskatoon Cycles is very excited to have the Cycling Guide launching in Saskatoon. The addition of routes with color coded stress levels is a game changer for folks who want to ride more, but just aren’t sure which route to take. We are expecting to have more riders on the roads and paths because of it!

Sounds good to us!

Get the app now for Android or iPhone. 

Happy cycling!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’ve been busy this past winter working on updates to our Cycling Guide mobile app. We’ve added some improvements, fixed some bugs, and now we’re ready to reveal the results. Cycling Guide 3.0 is now available for Android in the Google Play Store and iPhone in the App Store. This new release has many updates and fixes. Here are a few highlights:

• We’ve updated the way that we manage Regions in the app. Relatedly, Cycling Guide now provides the best available cycling-friendly routes in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with more new Regions  to come soon!
• We’ve added a few more Cycling Tips to help folks who may be new to cycling. And our tips are now managed more effectively, meaning we can update them and add new ones quickly as needed!
• Explore Rides have been updated. People using the app can now view an Explore Ride directly without having to get a route to its start.
• We’ve added a few more friendly businesses. And these are now managed more effectively, meaning we can update them and add new ones quickly as needed! And in Waterloo Region, ON, we now show the locations for the City of Kitchener’s Bikecheck for secure cycle storage at special events all summer. We’ll be adding similar valet bike parking for other Regions as well.
• We’ve added sponsorships for 2026. We think of our sponsors as valued partners, and their financial support helps us keep Cycling Guide free for everyone!
• We implemented many bug fixes of the recent “off season”! The most notable/annoying might be a bug that prevented people who had just installed the app from getting past the terms and conditions screen. That’s fixed!
• We’ve updated (and thoroughly tested) the way that we process data for use in our routing, and as a result our routes are improved in all Regions!
• And we’ve improved search results for addresses and locations, with better and more consistent results in all Regions.

There’s more to come in the next few weeks! Happy cycling, everyone!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

The end of the year is fast approaching, and as so many other organizations are doing, we’re reflecting on our progress over the past 12 months.

For our free Cycling Guide mobile app, we hit some gratifying milestones. We launched version 2.0 of the app last Spring, a major release which included many improvements and new features. And we did several more minor releases over the summer.

That version 2.0 release also set us up to add support for providing routes in three new regions, something that we’d been working on for many months. In June we launched in Ottawa, Halifax, and Sarnia-Lambon, enabling us to provide the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes to people in those communities. We‘ve been thrilled with the positive response. And we’re proud to have been able to work closely with our partners at Bike Ottawa, Halifax Cycling Coalition, and nuSarnia in those communities.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out a few presentations I’ve done over the last few weeks.

Vélo Canada Bikes is Canada’s national cycling advocacy organization. On November 21 I did a presentation, along with Dave Robertson and Guillaume Gaillard of Bike Ottawa, to Vélo Canada Bikes members about how we introduced our free Cycling Guide mobile app to Ottawa this past summer.

And on December 1  did a presentation to the Kitchener-Waterloo Linux User Group, going into some detail about our approach to routing and processing OpenStreetMap data. There were good questions that resulted in an engaging conversation.

Communitech is a tech advocacy organization in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. I appeared on the December 10 episode of Communitech’s Tech About Town podcast talking about our mobile app, our Foundation, and what we’re trying to do to support people cycling. I had a great time with hosts Alex Kinsella and Isibeal Ryan for this podcast! Check it out. The episode should be available wherever you get your podcasts.

We’re working to get Cycling Guide into more regions in 2026, and are excited about the conversations that we’re been having! But we’ll have more to say about that in the new year. In the meantime, if you’re interested in getting Cycling Guide working where you live, please get in touch with us. We’re always happy to partner with cycling groups in other cities and regions to expand our geographic coverage!

And finally, we reached another big milestone in June. Cycling Guide Foundation is now a registered charity in Canada! When we launched as a not-for-profit corporation in 2023, our intent was always to become a charity. Why? We wanted to send a strong signal that our mobile app is intended to be free for everyone, and that we won’t have the kinds of pressures that can result in for-profit corporations compromising the privacy and overall experience that people have with their products.

And from a viability perspective being a registered charity opens up the possibility of grants and other funding from a variety of like-minded foundations. Relatedly, it means that when we receive donations from individuals we can issue an official donation receipt for income tax purposes.

Want to make a donation to support our work on our Cycling Guide mobile app?

You can donate today!

Thanks for being with us on our journey. 

Happy cycling, and see you again in the new year 😀🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏿‍♂️🚴🏼❤️

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’ve had quite an eventful summer, with our Cycling Guide mobile app introducing the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes to three new regions: Halifax, Ottawa, and Sarnia-Lambton. And, of course, we still provide routes in Waterloo Region and Guelph, as we have since our launch in 2023.

And use of the app has increased dramatically! The numbers really have been something to see. How do we know that? Read on!

This summer, we introduced some under-the-hood functionality to help us better understand how people use the app. Specifically, it would be helpful for us to know the following:

• Monthly Active Users
• Weekly Active Users
• Daily Active Users

This information is important to our partners in the four regions where the app provides routes, as it gives an idea of how many people are using the app. That’s also of interest to funding organizations, for obvious reasons. We’ve added functionality in Cycling Guide to pass  information to the server (without tracking individuals in any way) indicating if the app has been used on a given day, within a given calendar week, or within a given month. And you’ll see shortly what we’ve learned.

This summer we also introduced screens that thank our supporters. We tried to do this with some care, showing a screen briefly when someone selects a Region to use. And a supporter screen will be shown again in seven days. We wanted to balance a great user experience with our desire to express our sincerest thanks to the partners and supporters who help make the app possible. We think we have the balance right, minimizing the interruption, but we’ll know more as the year progresses.

So what have we learned so far? The most meaningful number that I’ll share today is Monthly Active Users. In July, the Cycling Guide app was used by 1,038 people. Most of them were in Waterloo Region. That’s because while we introduced three new Regions in time for Canada Day, our partners hadn’t yet publicized the app widely by month’s end.

But that changed in August when Bike Ottawa and Halifax Cycling Coalition started to publicize the app more widely, including through news stories in legacy media like radio, TV, and newspaper. While the reach of those media may be dramatically lower than in years past, the impact is still significant. Marketers call appearances there “earned media”, and it can be invaluable in getting the word out. After an appearance on CTV News (TV) and CBC Radio, the impact on our usage was staggering.

Looking back at the month of August, the Cycling Guide app was used by 5,020 people. That’s more than quadruple what we saw in all of July!.

We’ve seen a corresponding increase in our installed base. While Apple and Google present things differently, we can still extract and assemble numbers that tell us how many people have installed Cycling Guide. At the end of July, around 3,210 people had installed the app on their phone (around 2,150 for iPhone and 1,060 for Android). As of today, those numbers have jumped dramatically. Around 7,725 people have installed the app on their phone (around 4,850 for iPhone and 2,875 for Android).

What does it all mean? Really, it’s too soon to say with any confidence, but it does look like there’s an unmet demand for cycling routes that avoid the stress of riding with traffic. And Cycling Guide is starting to meet that demand.

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’re excited to announce that our Cycling Guide mobile app is now available for use in Ottawa, Ontario, following an extended period of beta testing with people there who like to cycle. As someone who grew up in Ottawa, I’m especially happy that people there will have access to the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes to get where they want to go.

Our initial launch in 2023 covered only Waterloo Region and Guelph, Ontario. That’s because initially, it was meant to be a local project, one that was done in partnership with CycleWR. But we knew early on that the app would be wonderful to use in other regions.

We worked closely with the good people at Bike Ottawa to reach this milestone. It’s an organization with over 40 years of advocacy work to its credit, and the people there bring a deep understanding of the needs of people who cycle in the city. And there was financial support via donations from many individuals as well as The Biking Lawyer.

“Cycling Guide is going to empower local bike users and make them safer, and we’re very happy to have helped it come to Ottawa”, says board member Guillaume Gaillard.

And Dave Robertson, one of the people who has been testing Cycling Guide extensively in Ottawa, has this to say about his experience:

I want to say something about Cycling Guide. I think it might be changing my perception of how tough it is to get around. Before, it always felt like a challenge to get from A to B because of missing links and not having local knowledge. I find that is disappearing now and I feel more comfortable and confident getting around. I would even say my perception of the City is not as negative as it was before. There is a shift happening.

The feedback and response during testing has been overwhelmingly positive! People in Ottawa really do want to be able to cycle on low-stress routes to get where they’re going. And we feel great about making that easy for them to do via the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes.Want to try Cycling Guide in Ottawa? 

Get the app now for Android or iPhone. 

Happy cycling!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’re excited to announce that our Cycling Guide mobile app is now available for use in Halifax, Nova Scotia, following an extended period of beta testing with people there who like to cycle. It may have taken us a little longer than we had planned to reach this milestone, but we’ve reached it and we couldn’t be happier.

Our initial launch in 2023 covered only Waterloo Region and Guelph, Ontario. That’s because initially it was meant to be a local project. It’s one that was done in partnership with CycleWR, a local cycling advocacy organization. David Trueman was Chair of CycleWR at the time, and we worked together closely on Cycling Guide. When David moved to Halifax and became Chair of Halifax Cycling Coalition, it was natural to want to include Halifax in the app. (David is also Chair of Cycling Guide Foundation.)

And it was made possible by financial support from Halifax Cycling Coalition, Halifax Regional Municipality, and the HCi3 Fund. 

As David says, “Launching in Halifax is the culmination of our strategy to extend coverage for Cycling Guide to new communities. This has special meaning for me as Halifax is now my home and I am delighted to be bringing the app to the awesome cycling community here. I fully expect that Cycling Guide will help more people to cycle more often with increasing confidence.”

The feedback and response during testing has been overwhelmingly positive! People in Halifax really do want to be able to cycle on low-stress routes to get where they’re going. And we feel great about making that easy for them to do via the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes. Want to try Cycling Guide in Halifax? 

Get the app now for Android or iPhone. 

Happy cycling!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’re excited to announce that our Cycling Guide mobile app is now available for use in Sarnia-Lambton, Ontario, following an extended period of beta testing with people there who like to cycle. We’ve been working in this one for a while, and it’s great to get this into that community.

Our initial launch in 2023 covered only Waterloo Region and Guelph, Ontario. That’s because initially it was meant to be a local project, one that was done in partnership with CycleWR. But we knew early on that the app would be wonderful to use in other regions.

We worked closely with the good people at nuSarnia to reach this milestone. As an organization “committed to making Sarnia the best it can be — a vibrant, lively city where people are excited to live, work, play and learn”, the nuSarnia folks bring a deep understanding of the needs of people who cycle in the city.

Curtis Robichaud, one of the people who has been testing Cycling Guide in Sarnia, has this to say about Cycling Guide:

This app is a super handy way to find bike routes around the city. Whether I’m just cruising for fun or commuting it takes into account how comfortable the ride is for everyone with me. The team’s been great about updating the network with those little local shortcuts that only people who actually ride here would know, stuff that algorithms usually miss. I’m really looking forward to seeing what other locals add to the Explore section and finding even more cool spots to check out.

And nuSarnia co-founder and board director Ben Prins is excited about bringing Cycling Guide to Sarnia-Lambton. As he puts it:

I have five young grandchildren. When I bike with them, safety is the number one priority. I find Cycling Guide to be invaluable when it comes to determining the safest route to take them to our destination. I am surprised at how many of the (formerly) unknown (to me) connections it suggests in order to keep me off the main roads. It’s very intuitive and super easy to use. This is a great application and I want to say a big thank you to the people who worked to bring this to Sarnia

Again, Ben’s excited, and so are we! People in Sarnia really do want to be able to cycle on low-stress routes to get where they’re going. And we feel great about making that easy for them to do via the best available low-stress, cycling-friendly routes.Want to try Cycling Guide in Sarnia-Lambton? 

Get the app now for Android or iPhone. 

Happy cycling!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.

We’re excited to announce that, following a six-month-plus process, Cycling Guide Foundation is now a Canadian registered charity (Charitable Registration Number 71553 3345 RR0001).

When we launched Cycling Guide Foundation as a not-for-profit two years ago, our intent was eventually to become a charity. Why? Because we want to make a strong statement that our Cycling Guide mobile app is intended to always be free for everyone, and that we’ll never be swallowed up in an acquisition. We believe that cycling is an important part of climate action, and that making it easier for people to replace car trips with cycling trips will result in healthier people and places.

And from a viability perspective being a registered charity opens up the possibility of grants and other funding from a variety of like-minded foundations. Relatedly, it means that when we receive donations from individuals we can issue an official donation receipt for income tax purposes.

Want to make a donation to support our work on our Cycling Guide mobile app?

You can donate today!

We have a lot going on this summer, with more exciting news to come. Happy cycling!

This post was originally published on the Cycling Guide Foundationsite.