If you’ve ever wondered about the best route for a run, a long walk or a bike ride around Decatur or Atlanta, you’d probably consider the routes where folks walk/run/bike the most.

But up until the advent of the smartphone, this was something difficult to visualize on a map for large swaths of the world.  But thanks to mapping software and smartphone apps like RunKeeper, we can begin to map the most trafficked (or at least exercised!) routes around Atlanta – and the world!

A company called Mapbox has taken the data from 1.5 million runs, walks and bike rides from RunKeeper and turned it into one giant interactive map that you can play with HERE.  The brighter the line, the most frequented the route.

As you can see above, main routes in Decatur aren’t entirely surprising.  The PATH trail, West Ponce and Oakview seem to be the main walk/run/bike corridors within the city.  But zoom in a little closer and you can see all kinds of interesting patterns.  For instance, the most popular route to take thru the Decatur Cemetery is along the western road.

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