Anyone who's gone on a run or a bike ride in Chicago knows the routes that are jam-packed with fitness freaks. The Lakefront Trail and the "hipster highway" of Milwaukee Avenue are obvious spots, but Chicago's cyclists and joggers stray from the beaten path more than one might think. An interactive heat map released by GPS-based fitness app Strava shows the most popular paths taken by its users.
Strava collected data worldwide from more than 77 million bike rides and 19 million runs between January 2014 and May 2015 (which explains why the 606, which opened in June, is nowhere to be found on the Chicago maps).
The map shows that Archer and Ogden avenues are tremendously popular Southwest Side roads for cyclists, Belmont and Lawrence avenues are the preferred east-west routes for North Siders, and the terrifying hellholes of Ashland and Western avenues are avoided by bikers throughout the city.
The heat map for runners shows that Chicagoans love to jog along the boulevard system, and seemingly every resident in Oak Park is training for a marathon. The map also reveals a few surprises. People are apparently really into running laps around Midway Airport, and city dwellers all but avoid galloping through the heart of the Loop.
Click on the images above for a more detailed view of the maps. They could give you some good ideas for spots to get your cardio on (or avoid altogether).