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running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one?
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I'm thinking about an app for running, cycling, and even when I ride my motorcycle. What I'd like is something that will notify my wife only if I DONT wind up at a location by a certain time. I get there in time, no alert.

Curious what others are using. What features do you like? Are there features you wish you had that you can't find?

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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I think the biggest barrier to using these types of apps, IoTs, etc. is the concern about false positives. If you drop your helmet, your bike tips over at the coffee shop, etc. do you have to scramble to get to your phone before it calls 911 or panics your SO?

For a "did you arrive" app the challenge will be not having it trip if you stopped to fix a flat, took a long coffee break, etc.; and conversely if you set it to arrive somewhere 2hrs from now you could be in an accident halfway into your ride and it wouldn't trip for another hour.

I think the detection systems need to get a lot more sophisticated. For example, for a helmet sensor; is the nature of the acceleration consistent with a crash? Can it detect if the helmet was on your head? etc. For a phone app it probably needs to know if the phone is mounted on your bars, in your jersey pocket, or in a saddle bag; since these determine what the phone will experience, and how quickly you can see it/get to it.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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Titanflexr wrote:
I think the biggest barrier to using these types of apps, IoTs, etc. is the concern about false positives.

Curious - I there are a lot of views of this thread, and this one response. And I agree with Titanflexr. I've been on quite a few rides where we had to stop so someone could call home and say "ignore the crash alert; I'm just shredding it :) ...."

So is that the main barrier - people would like an app, but are afraid of false positives?

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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Road ID has an app where your loved one can track your progress / location, and has a feature that will alert them if you are stationary for more than 5 minutes. It works fairly well, but is sometimes a bit wonky. Better than nothing.

"I drank what?!?!" - Socrates
Poor Swimmer. Weak Cyclist. Slow Runner.
TriDot Ambassador / Sacramento Triathlon Club
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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Paul Dunn wrote:
I'm thinking about an app for running, cycling, and even when I ride my motorcycle. What I'd like is something that will notify my wife only if I DONT wind up at a location by a certain time. I get there in time, no alert.

Curious what others are using. What features do you like? Are there features you wish you had that you can't find?

Hard to beat good old SMS. "Headed up K2 north route. Back around 4."
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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I really like the accident detection feature on the Garmin edge 520. The device has a built in accelerometer which detects when you've had a crash and then sends a text to the three emergency contacts that you've designated, stating that you've had a "cycling incident" and sending a map of your location (you have to have it paired with your phone and your phone has to have data). I have never had a false positive, but in case you do have a false positive it gives you a few seconds to cancel it before it sends, or send another text after it has sent to say it's a false alarm. I once had a minor crash, riding at a slow speed over a metal bridge and slipping on some frost that I wasn't expecting, and it worked as advertised. Unfortunately, my hearing is not great and I did not hear the alarm go off, nor did I hear my wife trying to contact me on my phone to find out what happened, until we stopped 10 minutes later for a bio break, so she had a bit of a panic, but better safe than sorry...
What would be really cool would be if it could be paired with a video camera, and it sent a clip showing whatever was going on around the time of the crash. Tesla model 3 has a feature where if you honk your horn footage from the dash cam gets saved in a special folder that doesn't get recorded over, so this would be a similar concept.
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve used RoadID and am currently using Life360. My wife knows my route and anticipated finish time. On Life360 you can set up certain landmarks to send an alert, such as home, church, work, bike route turn around, etc. It covers our needs. It will even allow you to request a check in. I think it’s developed more for driving, but it works well for bike rides and even longer runs.
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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i use the garmin incident detection but get a lot of false alarms particularly on the MTB and also TT bike where i think the position out on the aero bars leads to any abrupt stop setting it off. mostly i manage to cancel it in time

i have ANGI on my helmet but don't use it as it requires starting a ride on my phone and pulling out my phone to cancel any false alarms. if it could integrate with my garmin head unit i would use it as they are supposed to be more reliable than garmin

i also have life360 on my phone so wife etc can check where i am
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [pk1] [ In reply to ]
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Garmin also has live tracking, which seems to work on my Edge 130. The Seesense rear light has an incident alert aspect (acelerometer) but for reasons that escape me they have no shut off option in case of accidental tripping or alert to tell you it has been tripped.
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Re: running/cycling safety app - What do you like? What do you wish you had? Do you use one? [Paul Dunn] [ In reply to ]
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I use Garmin Beacon. It sends my wife a text message with a link to my live location. She can see where I am at. I think it may tell her if I am still for too long but I am not sure. She really likes it.
Garmin LIveTrack errors out a lot of the time and I have no idea why.
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