Register at https://ruti.bike
Say Hi Ruti!
Ruti is our new, text-message-based planning tool that finds bike routes with the least amount of car traffic, or traffic stress. “Right Route. Less Stress.”
Ruti is the product of our passion for biking. It combines a wonderful partnership with the great people at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC); Corey's prior work on CyclePhilly; and his longtime friendship with Tim Hoenig - a fellow biker and polymath, who brought his product and brand management expertise to the table.
Background
In 2016, Corey and Tim started researching what motivated people to bike, and, more importantly, bike often. They came across many startling statistics but mainly that 60% of potential bike riders classify themselves "as interested but concerned." In response, they launched WhyABike, a simple website asking people to tell their biking story - why they rode or, alternatively, stopped riding a bike.
A lot of the WhyABike stories and research suggested that the lack of access to a reliable bicycle was one of the reasons people did not ride often. The research also suggested that many people had poor perceptions of how safe it is to bike. This discouraged regular riding. With that, we imagined a service that could 1) find the right bike for a person; and 2) keep them riding by mimicking the friendly bike route advice of an experienced bike riding friend.
Our research continued over the years but fully in "side project" mode while we worked on other various projects. Corey secretly toiled away, working on a prototype of a "friendly biking directions bot." Underscoring the notion that something good can always come from the bad, it was not until the pandemic hit that the side project fully turned into a real project for us. We partnered with the DVRPC and it was their expertise, data and a great team of people that turned Ruti into a reality. We are so fortunate and grateful for their partnership and shared values.
About Ruti
Ruti is a conversational app that combines text messaging through Twilio plus the Google Maps API and DVRPC’s Bike Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) data to find the most comfortable bike route between two locations. The resulting bike route map highlights the “stress levels” along a bike route so riders can see where car volume and speed is usually the highest and prepare accordingly.
The underlying dataset, DVRPC’s Bike LTS analysis, has rated over 29,500 miles of roadway in their nine-county Greater Philadelphia region. The analysis accounts for each road segment’s number of traffic lanes, effective speed, and if present, the different types of bike infrastructure, such as sharrows, bike lanes, or protected bike lanes. These factors are used to determine an LTS classification ranging from 1 to 4, where 1 is relaxing and suitable for most riders, and 4 is uncomfortable for most riders - including those who are most experienced.
We hope Ruti will encourage both casual and experieced bike riders to ride more often. The casual rider can use Ruti to avoid roads with lots of car traffic, to get to a farmers market, the grocery store, or a park. While someone who rides more regularly might use Ruti to find a new route between home and work. The person who rides everywhere might find a more comfortable route that they may have never considered before to a destination, such as a park or a trailhead.
We are most proud of how easy it is to access and use Ruti. It is accessible to anyone with any phone. You just send Ruti a text message through your own text messaging app ang go, there is no need to download any additional app.
We hope you'll give Ruti a try and, if you like it, please tell a friend.
To learn more about Ruti and try it out, please visit rutiapp.bike